Peripheral biometric scanner for palm, fingerprints wins French defense award

An Idemia Public Security partnership, the company’s NéoDK project in collaboration with Colonel Nicolas Thiburce, has been awarded the Prix de l’Audace, according to a press release. The biannual French prize awarded by the Defense Innovation Agency (AID) recognizes and rewards €2,500 per project to civilian or military personnel from the Ministry of the Armed Forces and Veterans and the National Gendarmerie who “imagine and develop new equipment and services, improving the operational capabilities of the forces or the daily functioning of the institution.”

The NeoDK project resulted in the development of the MTop Mobile FAP60 fingerprint and palm print scanner for biometric enrollment on smartphones.

The MTOP Mobile replaces traditional ink and paper with a digital system for capturing fingerprint biometrics and palm prints with a peripheral scanner. It is integrated into the MTopMobile, Idemia’s new mobile fingerprint enrollment device for rolled fingers and palm acquisition. The scanner weighs in at 350g and is designed to fit into a pocket, with USB-C connectivity. The partners say that mobile biometrics enrollment with the dedicated peripheral reduces processing time and improves biometric sample quality.

NeoDK’s project manager is Colonel Nicolas Thiburce, director general for the Gendarmerie Nationale. Along with Idemia and Thiburce, it involved the Agence du numérique des forces de sécurité intérieure (ANFSI), the Centre de Production Multimédia de la Gendarmerie Nationale (CPMGN) and the AID.

“This is a new method of capturing fingerprints and palm prints, as well as anthropometric photos, carried by the gendarme on his Néo phone,” explains Colonel Thiburce, project manager at the Operations and Employment Directorate (DOE), director of the NéoDK program. “Today, 80 percent of the surveys are done with ink and paper. The gendarmerie remained compartmentalized in this organization, in particular because the current cost of optical blocks would be exorbitant. NéoDK aims to put an end to this compartmentalization.”

Article Topics

biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  fingerprint scanners  |  France  |  Idemia Public Security  |  mobile biometrics  |  palm biometrics  |  research and development