Fujitsu boosts security for multi-service palm-vein authentication system

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Fujitsu Laboratories has developed a new identification technology, which enables palm-vein identification to be used securely in a wider range of situations.

Conventional palm-vein identification works by comparing complex vein patterns extracted from images of the user’s palm. By contrast, Fujitsu’s new technology extracts characteristic components from the vein patterns, and uses them to generate 2,048-bit reference codes which are used for comparison.

Also, when data is converted to codes, by changing the conversion conditions different codes can be generated from the same image, making it possible to use different codes for different services.

A Fujitsu spokesman explains: “First, let’s start signing up for Service A. Users place their hand here three times. My sign-up data for Service A has been generated. I’ll try authenticating my palm under the Service A conditions, with reference to the data registered for Service A. As you can see, this is successful.”

The upper figure is part of the registered data, and the lower figure is part of the data generated from the palm scan. The corresponding digits are compared, and if their match exceeds a certain percentage, authentication is successful. The probability of mistaking the user’s identity is about one in 100,000.

As the data sent to the service side is just this code, there’s no need to send the biometric data itself, which is actually destroyed once the code is generated. This biometric data is very difficult to recreate from the code alone, and even if the code is accidentally disclosed by the service, other services won’t be affected.

“We aim to make this technology practical by 2015,” said the Fujitsu spokesman. “We’re targeting applications where convenience is important, so for example, paying for goods at convenience stores, receiving deliveries, and accessing web sites.”