Aratek plans another big year of biometrics launches to target specific business challenges
Aratek mobile terminal for attendance management at l’ISSEG in Guinea
Digital transformation initiatives involving biometric identity management by businesses across all sectors was proceeding at an uneven rate before the pandemic set in. Over the past year, the importance of having technology already in place to carry on business functions has become obvious to all, Aratek VP for International Business Development Samuel Wu told Biometric Update in an email.
The biometric devices the company develops and manufactures for identity and access management are now recognized as an investment priority, he says, meaning there are “no more early adopters or late adopters. We are all adopters,” he points out.
Shifts towards working, banking and shopping online will remain after the pandemic has subsided, Wu says, ushering in “a prolonged period of phenomenal growth of the biometric identification and authentication market, which underpins all these essential applications.”
“It also goes without saying that with everybody doing everything online, the window for identity fraud has been thrown wide open,” Wu warns, explaining Aratek’s biometric development priorities to help customers adjust their operations. “The way we see it, the overriding mission now is to develop a more ironclad security for all the identification and authentication needed to keep the digital ecosystem ticking.”
During a busy product development year in 2020, Aratek launched a comprehensive new line of facial recognition products, with four devices to address different business and organizational requirements. The company is planning to follow up with another round of biometric hardware releases during 2021 to meet a range of critical business needs now recognized by customers in different verticals, including highly secure fingerprint biometrics and touchless identification with facial recognition.
Responding to global challenges
The TruFace line of facial recognition terminals was launched to general availability in March, giving businesses in a wide range of industries contactless access control options to fit their particular needs.
All TruFace terminals offer highly accurate face biometrics, along with liveness detection and multifactor authentication (MFA), with an ergonomic design and complete hardware-independence.
The TruFace BA8100 an advanced facial recognition algorithm, liveness detection and a built-in RFID reader, and the BA8200 with FAP20 fingerprint scanning and the above features, while the BA8200-T provides the same features plus body temperature measurement, mask detection and optional fingerprint biometrics. For a larger screen size and easy deployment to a wide range of applications, Aratek developed the TruFace BD8500 terminal. Every TruFace device captures images with a 2MP Dual HDR camera, runs on an open operating system, and has blacklist capabilities out of the box.
Importantly, Aratek says its facial recognition algorithm also performs accurate identity verification for masked users.
Organizations can deploy TruFace devices to any work environment, as a wall-mounted terminal, integrated with a larger system such as an access gate, or as a standalone desktop device. Implemented to utilize the existing infrastructure and security investments of the business, TruFace solutions can support applications for compliance to health and safety protocols, as well as traditional secure physical access control.
As observed by Wu, data security was another area of increased focus in 2020, with people around the world increasingly aware of the risks associated with storage of sensitive data. Aratek responded to this growing concern by upgrading its A600 scanner and module with AES-256 encryption.
AES-256 encryption is generally considered impenetrable to brute-force methods with the most advanced computing technology on the market, and is therefore used by governments to protect their secrets.
Preparing businesses for the future
Product innovation and development by Aratek has also continued throughout 2020 and into 2021, and the company told Biometric Update that it plans to continue working on new fingerprint and multi-biometric products, building partnerships with governments, banks, and other industries, and address the continuously-escalating need for digital security.
Going beyond a surface-level understanding of customer needs is a key to Aratek’s consistent pace of product development, according to Wu.
“That’s why our research and development’s most critical job is to scratch the surface and go deeper into the heart of the problem,” he writes. “This mindset gives us that feel for developing real solutions for real needs.”
Development work completed over the past year has led to the anticipated release of a range of modules and scanners to provide fingerprint biometrics in different environments and workflows, as well as a new multimodal biometric tablet.
Aratek is planning to launch three different fingerprint devices in the year ahead, to meet customer demand for FAP30, FAP45 and FAP60 scanners. Four new fingerprint sensor modules are also due to exit the company’s development pipeline during 2021 to suit applications from FAP20 through FAP45.
The Marshall 8 biometric tablet is also planned, to enable mobile and versatile multimodal biometric enrollment and verification.
The new products address the specific real needs Wu refers to, like easy integration and enhanced encryption for the fingerprint products, and remote multi-factor authentication and identification in the case of the Marshall 8 tablet.
“’Identifying the World. Easily. Securely’ is a corporate strap line, but it is also rallying call that we take to heart,” Wu says. “We are known for our obsession with accuracy and security, just two of the many reasons that our customers’ always have the highest level of confidence in our technology.”
The launch of a new line of fingerprint modules, as well as complete scanners, and a mobile multi-biometric tablet in the year ahead, Aratek is building on its momentum from 2020, with the release of the TruFace line of terminals and the enhancement of multiple Aratek fingerprint products with AES-256 encryption.
The company plans to continue digging deep into customer needs to develop and deliver the biometric devices that suit their particular requirements, across numerous verticals and industries.
Article Topics
Aratek | biometric identification | biometrics | contactless biometrics | facial recognition | fingerprint recognition | fingerprint sensors | mask detection | multimodal biometrics | research and development | tablets
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