Siemens AG has added a biometric fingerprint access control system to its security product protfolio. The Siemens FingerTIP technology can be incorporated into either a mouse or a keyboard, and uses 65,000 sensors to measure the distance between an electrode and the ridges that make up a fingerprint signature.
FingerTIP can be used in desktop and handheld systems, or with any other machine requring some kind of access control such as, for instance, a car. Siemens claims it represents an important step towards a future without passwords or personal identification numbers. The German firm, which announced its Sicrypt range of smartcard-secured PCs last week (CI No 3,655) will make keyboard versions available from the autumn. It predicts that the biometric sensor market will be worth $1.2bn by 2003.
