Innovatrics and MoriX Introduce Pioneering Fingerprint On-card Authentication

Innovatrics has formed a partnership with Japan-based, MoriX, to introduce the world’s first operational biometric smart card with a fingerprint authentication on card.

To yield sophisticated sensor miniaturization, Innovatrics has developed Small Area Matcher algorithm. This unique approach to traditional fingerprint matching is able to compare the user’s fingerprint to a template stored on a card in less than a second on the stock 100 MHz ARM M4 MCU. The combination of MoriX sensor and Innovatrics algorithm is so efficient that the smart card itself does not require any internal source of power. The current provided by the contactless terminal (4mA) is sufficient to power all necessary functions.

Unlike traditional algorithms, the Small Area Matcher does not focus on comparing minutiae points but uses convolutional neural networks to accurately match even a fraction of an original fingerprint image. Moreover, it is able to perform both verification (1:1) and identification (1:N) operations, despite limited hardware requirements.

Without having to upgrade the existing infrastructure, MoriX’ high-end super-thin on-card fingerprint reader paired with Innovatrics’ powerful algorithm is changing the way card identity verification works. MoriX has achieved an important breakthrough by producing a fingerprint sensor thin enough to be embedded in a smartcard, with thickness of just 0.76 mm and the size of 8 by 8 mm with a resolution of 160 x 160 pixels. Such a thin and lightweight sensor can be incorporated into standard-sized contactless cards.

The Innovatrics small area matcher algorithm itself can be used everywhere where small scale optical or ultrasonic fingerprint sensors and constrained hardware options are required. With the proliferation of small, cheap, convenient fingerprint sensors an accurate, extremely fast and energy-efficient algorithm such as Innovatrics’ is a perfect fit for embedded uses cases such as IoT devices, door locks, automotive sensors or smartphone authentication.