AuthecTec “Smart Sensor” possible gem in Apple acquisition

In a bid to get ahead of its rivals and take full control of the market share, Apple is scrambling to get access to AuthenTec Technology, offering $US27.5 million up front, totaling a US$356 million offer, as BiometricUpdate.com reported last month.

Speculators say that Apple’s urgency is aimed at getting full control of noteworthy technology being developed by AuthenTec, a new “Smart Sensor”, which can do more than just verify fingerprints, and acts as a touch pad controller. For its small size, the sensor has a 192×8 pixel detection matrix and is backed up by the fingerprint matching technology and security encryption to become a compact fingerprint recognizer. It is also capable of a variety of other features including personalization, or “the ability to associate different functions with different fingers.”

Additionally, as Apple Insider reported last week, AuthenTec has developed “anti-spoofing technology” that “dynamically measures the properties of finger skin placed on the sensor while the finger is being scanned. This patented technology ensures that only real fingerprints are read by converting the properties of the skin into digital data which are delivered to the host computer for analysis. AuthenTec anti-spoofing technology then compares the data with expected properties to ensure fingerprint authentication.”

Over the years, Apple has acquired other companies and technologies in order to turn these into key features into their products. For example, Siri is a voice recognition software which has been attached to its iPhone series. Other key features such as the Lala for iTunes, Quattro wireless for iAd, and Polar Rose which is a camera face recognition technology have all been acquired in a bid to boost sales and give the company an edge in the tech and gadgets industry.

Article Topics

Apple  |  AuthenTec  |  biometrics  |  encryption  |  fingerprint  |  security  |  spoofing  |  technology  |  voice recognition