Award-winning palm biometrics study promises low-cost authentication

A new development in palm biometric technology, which promises low-cost and reliable authentication, has won acclaim.

Led by Dr. Yucheng Xie, who is assistant professor in the Katz School’s Graduate Department of Computer Science and Engineering, the team of researchers have developed something dubbed “mmPalm.”

This system uses millimeter wave signals to scan an individual’s palm, creating a low cost and low-effort authentication method. The system is elaborated in the paper “mmPalm: Unlocking Ubiquitous User Authentication Through Palm Recognition with mmWave Signals,” which was awarded Best Paper Follow-Ups at the IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security (CNS).

“The technology is promising because of the fine detail that mmWave can capture,” said Dr. Xie, the paper’s lead author in collaboration with researchers from George Mason University, Rutgers University, Temple University and New York Institute of Technology.

“By harnessing high-resolution mmWave signals to extract detailed palm characteristics,” he continued, “mmPalm presents an ubiquitous, convenient and cost-efficient option to meet the growing needs for secure access in a smart, interconnected world.”

The mmPalm method employs mmWave technology, which is widely used in 5G networks, to capture a person’s palm characteristics by sending and analyzing reflected signals and thereby creating a unique palm print for each user.

Beyond this, mmPalm also meets the difficulties that can arise in authentication technology like distance and hand orientation. The system uses a type of AI called the Conditional Generative Adversarial Network (cGAN) to learn different palm orientations and distances, and generates virtual profiles to fill in gaps.

In addition, the system will adapt to different environments using a transfer learning framework so that mmPalm is suited to various settings. The system also builds virtual antennas to increase the spatial resolution of a commercial mmWave device.

Tested with 30 participants over six months, mmPalm displayed a 99 percent accuracy rate and was resistant to impersonation, spoofing and other potential breaches.

Popularity of palm biometrics

Palm biometrics are hot right now, with major players across the industry investing heavily. Palm is emerging as a modality of choice for in-person retail, banking and access control.

Palm for payments

Palm biometric scans will increase in usage, with international companies such as Tencent, Visa, Amazon, J.P. Morgan and Mastercard backing palm-based payment systems.

Tencent has partnered with Visa for palm recognition technology for digital payments, beginning with a pilot program in Singapore. The initiative will allow Visa cardholders from DBS, OCBC and UOB banks to use “Pay by Palm” to complete transactions.

Previously, Visa has showcased its pay-by-palm biometric payment technology, while separately Tencent Cloud introduced a palm verification system that uses infrared cameras to capture and analyze vein patterns and prints within the palm.

In China, Tencent launched its Palm Pay system via WeChat, which is ubiquitous in the country, across convenience stores and select retail outlets. In the U.S., Amazon has deployed its palm-scanning technology Amazon One across all of its Whole Foods stores.

J.P. Morgan is planning its own rollout of palm-based payment technology next year while Mastercard has integrated palm biometrics into its biometric checkout program.

In the UAE, Dubai is planning to streamline metro and retail payments with palm recognition next year. The technology has already been deployed to facilitate passenger screening at its air and seaports.

Access, authentication and IDV

Palm biometrics are now available on Anonybit’s infrastructure platform through a strategic partnership with Armatura. The first deployment of Armatura’s palm biometrics on Anonybit’s decentralized infrastructure is expected to be a combined physical and logical access control system for enterprise employees.

Innovatrics recently rolled out mobile palm print recognition technology for identity verification. The company says that the technology can be applied in identification and access control scenarios, allowing a wave of a hand in front of a camera to open doors with the same reliability as facial recognition.

Precise Biometrics has integrated palm biometrics into it’s portfolio of access control and visitor management products. In addition to being offered with YOUNiQ Access and YOUNiQ Visit, Precise will sell its palm biometric algorithm to developers and system integrators.

Uniken integrated palm vein authentication into its REL-ID platform, an advanced biometric security solution for the banking industry, and Humanity Protocol is reliant on palm biometrics for its blockchain-based digital identity system.

Article Topics

access control  |  biometric authentication  |  biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  identity verification  |  palm biometrics  |  palm recognition