-Caveat Lector- ® Top Story New Fingerprint Device To Read Beneath Skin 19 Apr 1999, 3:48 PM CST By Craig Menefee, Newsbytes. MELBOURNE, FLORIDA, U.S.A., Biometrics firm AuthenTec, Inc., has announced a fingerprint identification technology called E-Field that reads beneath the surface layer of the skin. As a result, calluses and other "human surface defects" don't fool the reader, the firm says. Biometric devices work by measuring some aspect of a person's body, such as fingerprints or voiceprints, and using the result to certify a person's identify. Newsbytes notes that no actual E-Field product is shipping yet, but Scott Moody, president of AuthenTec, told Newsbytes, "It's on the cusp of being a product. We'll be launching this summer." AuthenTec says it plans to demonstrate the technology at the 1999 CardTech/SecurTech trade show, scheduled May 11-14 in Chicago. Moody told Newsbytes the demos will include image acquisition success rates, success at getting clear not fuzzy images, and the technology's use in actual applications -- as a PC access device or in home security systems, for example. According to AuthenTec, a person's "real" fingerprints actually begin below the skin's outer, surface layer, which tends to become dry, callused, worn and dirty under real-world conditions. As a result, a surface-only reading will produce false results or fail to acquire any print at all much of the time. "People talk about one-in-100 or one-in-a-billion success rates, but they never talk about the prints they failed to acquire in the first place," said Moody. "If a technology doesn't work for everybody, those numbers they throw out will not be true. That's why our focus has been on the ability to acquire." AuthenTec's E-Field technology uses an antenna sensor array to read beneath the surface of the finger to the boundary between the live epidermal layer, where fingerprint ridge patterns originate, and the outer, dead layer that protects the body from harm. At the boundary is a layer of dying cells, one cell deep, that follows the ridges and valleys beneath it. That boundary has a different signal resistance that AuthenTec's technology reads by creating a field between the finger and the semiconductor sensors. The field mimics the shape of the ridges and valleys of the finger's epidermal layer. The sensors feeds their signals to an "under-pixel amplifier," which Moody described to Newsbytes as "very much a summary term." In essence, an array of the tiny sensors each sends a pixel-like signal to the underlying amplifier, which digitizes it into a readable image of the fingerprint. AuthenTec claims the resulting image accurately corresponds to the pattern of the fingerprint, giving what the firm calls "a true, unaffected image that neither optical nor DC capacitive technologies can produce." Dale Setlak, vice president and chief technical officer, says, "With fingerprint identification, it's all about acquisition. If a technology can't read a fingerprint image, the myriad applications that have been dreamed up for biometrics are meaningless." Moody told Newsbytes the E-Field technology has been undergoing tests at 100 customer sites for several months and AuthenTec now has on-site the first single-chip working version. According to Moody, the technology has now had 18 patents granted, with 16 more pending and six being prepared for filing. In all, more the patents, if all are granted, will cover more than 2400 original ideas, Moody told Newsbytes. "Actually, the number is changing every day," he added. AuthenTec has a World Wide Web site at http://www.authentec.com <http://www.authentec.com> . Reported by Newsbytes News Network, http://www.newsbytes.com <http://www.newsbytes.com> . 15:48 CST (19990419/WIRES NETWORK, BUSINESS, LEGAL, PC/AUTHENTEC/PHOTO) Copyright <http://www.pnbi.com/copyright.html> (c) Post-Newsweek Business Information, Inc. All rights reserved. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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