Sciometrics Spins Out Mobile Fingerprint Technology

CHANTILLY, Va., June 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Sciometrics, LLC announced it spun out its mobile fingerprint technology into an independent subsidiary named "Scio".  The technology enables smartphone cameras to act as fingerprint sensors, thereby eliminating the need for specialized hardware.  Scio's mission will be to replace fingerprint hardware ranging from the boxes used by law enforcement to the embedded sensors found in the majority of the 1.4 billion smartphones produced annually. With its patented mobile fingerprint technology as a foundation, Scio envisions ubiquitous multi-modal, cross-device identification using standard mobile and IoT sensors.

"We see an exciting product family in Scio's future," said Mark Walch, President of Sciometrics. "The current app is immediately relevant to our public-sector customers since we match our images to legacy systems.  It will also enable cost-effective verifications for the increasing number of national ID systems such as India's Aadhaar.  But that's just the start; we intend to OEM the technology into smartphones for applications ranging from app access to device access.  Imagine, to open your phone or approve a transaction, you casually wave your hand over the front of your phone and it matches patterns in your fingers – or even your palm."

The technology will enable a number of benefits for smartphone manufacturers, including:

• lower costs in upfront engineering and phone components, especially as inexpensive Android 'Go' phones gain traction;
• freeing up screen/phone space compared to fingerprint and iris sensors; and,
• tying directly into national ID systems.

For private sector users, it will offer the convenience and security of fingerprints and other biometrics – not only on their device, but across multiple devices from one enrollment.  For defense and law enforcement, it will dramatically expand field identifications by using phones already in the hands of officers. The technology is being tested by defense personnel in two G-7 countries.

To-date, the technology has been tested on eight models of Android phone models from four vendors. There are currently two versions of the app.  The version used by law enforcement collects demographics, up to ten fingers, a face picture, pictures of ID documents, and a voice clip. The fingerprint capture is already dramatically faster than traditional hardware: 10 fingers are captured in about 35 seconds.  Training time is measured in minutes. The second version, a "fingerprint selfie", enables a user to capture their own fingers for verification.  Matching can be on the phone or in the cloud. Face matching is also available. Voice collection is enabled; matching will be implemented in the future, thereby expanding user convenience and security.

Sciometrics has 15 years of experience in complex pattern recognition and matching for U.S. defense and law enforcement. This experience – ranging from image enhancement to resolution-handling – led to the technologies behind the Scio app, currently called 'SlapShot'.

Scio's mobile fingerprint IP includes a patent on methods for enabling mobile device cameras as fingerprint sensors.  Scio also has rights to Sciometrics' pattern recognition technologies including:

• Ridgeflow-based fingerprint technology (embodied in Sciometrics' LatentSleuth product) which uses 'big calc' pixel-by-pixel ridgeflow matching – compared to the few minutiae points in traditional fingerprinting. This technology will assist with worn live fingerprints and the mobile collection and matching of crime scene latents.
• Video-based identity technology which finds traditional biometrics – as well as innovative non-traditional – biometric in real time. This will speed verifications and enable non-traditional (proprietary) biometrics.
• Video-centric face recognition technology which will improve matching and contribute 'liveness' techniques to enhance security.

About Sciometrics & Scio

Sciometrics has a 15-year history of providing complex pattern recognition systems to U.S. defense and law enforcement.  Those systems were precursors to several innovations including a fingerprint matching solution, LatentSleuth, which uses full ridgeflow information to match small latent fingerprints not suitable for traditional (minutiae-based) AFIS systems.  Web site: http://sciometrics.com

Scio, LLC is a new company solely focused on using standard mobile and IoT sensors to enable biometric identity across devices and operating systems for the private and public sectors.  Web site: https://scio.mobi

For more information:  [email protected] or call (703) 793-2399.

SOURCE Scio, LLC

Related Links

https://scio.mobi/