Hitachi unveils Finger Vein biometric authentication device

Hitachi today announced that it will begin the sale of its compact and contact less Finger Vein biometric authentication device.

Hitachi developed the product based on the original model designed for the Japanese market and sold in Japan since October 2006. You can now guard against illegitimate access or leakage of information on your computers by using the vein patterns in your finger as the key to manage your computer login process.

The finger vein unit has achieved its small size, high accuracy rate and low cost by employing a single-chip LSI design with this device. In addition, an SDK is available to allow for development of custom applications or integration into existing application environments.

Hitachi claims that because of the unique and "non-traceable" nature of the biometric technology, counterfeiting is not possible.

Hitachi increasingly is focusing its businesses on creating solutions to answer various market trends aiming at the achievement of a safe, comfortable, ubiquitous information society, exemplified by making finger vein technology the de facto standard for high-security biometrics.

The finger vein pattern recognition technology employs the vein pattern of the finger as the biometric feature. The finger vein pattern is impossible to counterfeit because the vein is inside the body.

With some of the existing biometric systems, it is possible to acquire biometric data without the knowledge of the individual. It is not possible to acquire the finger vein biometric feature without the knowing consent of the individual meaning that from a societal aspect, finger vein pattern recognition is safe and secure for the individual.