Biometric point-of-sales vendor gets patent for fingerprint retail payment system

A U.S. patent has been awarded to a company making fingerprint scanners that can be used to biometrically confirm a person’s identity.

OVE, based in San Francisco, has been awarded patent number 11,514,454 for a system it already is marketing. It involves a $149 Touch & Go scanner integrated with a vendor’s point-of-sale setup, a shopper’s mobile device and a wireless connection.

Already, shoppers use their phone to create a profile that includes their fingerprint, which is transmitted via intranet and stored on an OVE server as a secure token. They also designate which method of payment is associated with their choice of fingertips.

At that point, shoppers can make purchases in a participating store by touching the screen of OVE’s wireless device. It is a black, palm-sized, flattened egg-shaped piece of hardware with an interactive screen.

The company recently came out of stealth, and reveled that it uses payment software from Plaid. Ovo has used ultrasonic fingerprint sensors in the past, according to a blog post, but the patent also mentions capacitive biometric sensors made by Fingerprint Cards and data processing units from STMicroelectronics in possible embodiments of the invention.

Last year, Technavio forecast that biometric point of sale terminals grow by a compounded annual growth rate of 36 percent from 2020 to 2025.

This past year has been eventful for point-of-sale market moves with new hardware announced and staff moves.

Article Topics

biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  fingerprint biometrics  |  OVE Touch & Go  |  patents  |  point-of-sale  |  retail biometrics