NEXT Biometrics introduces standard-compliant smart card with flexible fingerprint sensor and new peripheral device

NEXT Biometrics has launched the Oyster II peripheral fingerprint reader, and along with smart card manufacturing partner Tactilis is demonstrating a biometric smart card with a flexible sensor compliant with international standards.

NEXT and Tactilis are demonstrating the new card solution, which they say is a market first, this week at Trustech 2017. The biometric-system-on-card (BSoC) integrates NEXT’s signature advanced large area flexible sensor technology to meet the security and user experience requirements of the financial, government and access control mass markets.

“NEXT’s advanced large-area flexible sensor delivers the security and reliability that will help move the use of biometric smart card technology into widespread adoption by the industry,” said Ritu Favre, CEO of NEXT Biometrics. “Working together with Tactilis we are able to deliver a product that can be manufactured in volume and which meets the stringent standards requirements demanded in real life implementations.”

Following the integration of the NEXT NB 5510 non-flexible sensor into smart cards which are currently shipping to customers, NEXT’s NB610 flexible sensors have been integrated into Tactilis smart cards compliant with the ISO 17839 standard for biometric smart cards.

“We strongly believe large and flexible sensors are absolutely necessary to provide fast one-touch verification and exceptional user experience, while simultaneously providing the highest level of security for the card issuer and the card user,” said Michael Gardiner, CEO of Tactilis. “Ease of enrollment and the ability to work with existing installed infrastructure will also allow for rapid low-cost adoption. We partnered with NEXT because their sensor technology and long-term strategy help us deliver products that meet the new BSoC industry standards and user preferences necessary for mass market adoption.”

NEXT launches peripheral for Windows users

The Oyster II is based on the ergonomic design of the original Oyster, which was released by NEXT in 2015, and likewise connects to a variety of mobile and desktop devices by USB. It includes a large active reader area for reliable imaging, and is designed for a broad range of market applications.

“Building on the success of NEXT’s fingerprint sensor technology that is now widely designed into mobile computing devices, we’re introducing a USB version that can be easily transported and used for an even broader set of fingerprint authentication applications,” said Radek Matyasek, senior vice president of Sales at NEXT. “We’ve taken our leading fingerprint sensing capability and greatly expanded how and here it can now be used.”

NEXT’s Active Thermal technology makes it effective in all environmental conditions and in spite of dirt or grease which could affect the performance of other fingerprint sensors.

Hardware drivers and a complete SDK are available from NEXT based on its certified partner algorithm for Microsoft Windows, and the device is compatible with Windows Biometric Framework and Windows Hello.

As previously reported, NEXT fingerprint sensors were recently integrated into Fujitsu notebooks and tablets.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  fingerprint sensors  |  Next Biometrics  |  smartcards  |  Tactilis