IDEX granted Australian patent for remote biometric payment card enrollment

The Australian Patent and Trademark Office has granted IDEX Biometrics a foundational patent for unconnected on-card enrollment of biometric smart cards, covering broad claims for devices and methods used to enroll a template fingerprint image in the user’s home, according to a company announcement.

The new patent granted by IP Australia is related to a pair of enrollment patents IDEX was granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office earlier this year. The enrollment solution was developed in partnership with Mastercard, which is currently running pilots of biometric payment cards with IDEX sensors.

Australia is a key geography for payment providers rolling out new card services in the APAC region, IDEX says. The company is presenting its invention as a cost-effective and practical alternative to visiting a bank branch or connecting the card to another device with a wired or wireless connection.

“This patent grant is further validation of IDEX’s unique ability to develop innovations that will accelerate the creation of the biometric smart card market,” comments IDEX Biometrics CEO Stan Swearingen. “Across the Asia-Pacific region, we see card use growing rapidly compared to cash and biometric payment cards offer unique benefits to those card users. IDEX’s low cost, convenient invention for enrollment removes a barrier to mass deployment of biometric cards to the public. We expect unconnected remote on-card enrollment to become the de-facto standard for biometric smart card enrollment worldwide and IDEX is ideally positioned with the granting of this foundational patent.”

Swearingen recently wrote in a guest post for Biometric Update that Asia is leading adoption of contactless payment technologies.

Article Topics

Australia  |  biometric cards  |  biometric enrollment  |  biometrics  |  fingerprint sensors  |  Idex Biometrics