Fujitsu aims to establish a de facto standard in the area of high security biometric authentication with its palm vein authentication technology, and from July this year will collaborate with its group companies in North America, Europe, and Asia to aggressively drive its palm vein authentication business in these regions, with other regions to follow.

Global market research conducted by Fujitsu indicates that as in Japan, there is growing demand and great interest worldwide, ranging from governmental and private sectors to personal use, for Fujitsu's contactless palm vein authentication technology. Fujitsu's palm vein authentication technology offers advanced biometric authentication security that is extremely difficult to breach and has advanced features that give this technology an edge over alternative methods of biometric security.

In addition to being contactless and thereby hygienic and user-friendly in that the user does not need to physically touch a surface and is free of such hygiene concerns, Fujitsu's palm vein authentication is highly secure in that the veins are internal to the body and carry a wealth of information, thereby being extremely difficult to forge. Fujitsu's palm vein authentication features a high rate of applicability across users in that impact from external factors during the authentication process is minimal. Such features of Fujitsu's palm vein authentication overcome these technical issues and hygiene issues which are often of concern when using alternative biometric authentication methods, such as fingerprint biometric authentication. The high accuracy rate* of Fujitsu's palm vein authentication offers industry-leading security.

In March of this year, Fujitsu demonstrated its palm vein authentication technology at the international IT and telecommunications trade show CeBIT in Hanover, where it gained wide attention and high regard from visitors.

In view of these developments, Fujitsu is launching its palm vein authentication device globally and will target de facto standardization of its technology in high security biometric markets worldwide. From July of this year, Fujitsu will coordinate with the following global group companies to launch its palm vein authentication device business in the regions below, with expansion plans to include other regions in the future:
Americas: Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc.
EMEA: Fujitsu Europe Limited
Asia
ASEAN countries: Fujitsu Asia Pte. Ltd.
South Korea: Fujitsu Korea Limited
Taiwan: Fujitsu Taiwan Ltd.

Concurrently, Fujitsu will begin offering to these same markets its mPollux** log-in authentication middleware developed by Fujitsu Services Oy in Finland, to support system integration business using the palm vein authentication device.

Future Developments
Since its market introduction in Japan in July 2004, Fujitsu has sold approximately 5,000 units of its palm vein authentication device in Japan. Fujitsu has future plans to introduce a compact version of the device in Japan that is expected to become globally available as well. Miniaturization of the device will help further expand the market, and in the future Fujitsu will aim to incorporate the device in consumer products such as personal computers and mobile phones, as well as use in the automotive or home security industries.

Over the next three years, Fujitsu aims to receive worldwide orders of 80 billion yen with its palm vein authentication business.

Features of the Contactless Palm Vein Authentication Device
1. Difficult to forge - Since biometric source is internal within the body Palm veins are inside the body, thereby making them difficult to forge. Furthermore, compared to veins in the fingers or the back of the hand, palm veins are more complex thereby offering greater security.

2. Highly applicable across various types of users due to minimal impact from external factors - Fingerprint authentication can be hindered by surface abrasions on the skin or dry skin, and iris scanning can be difficult depending on the size of the user's eye, thereby preventing successful registration and verification of the user's data. Whereas, in contrast Fujitsu's contactless palm vein authentication device features minimal susceptibility from such external factors and therefore enables a high rate of applicability across various types of users.

Fujitsu collected data samples of 140,000 palm vein patterns from each hand of 70,000 people and verified reliability of its technology for recognition accuracy and rate of applicability. There were no cases in this data sample for which the technology was not applicable, thereby demonstrating its high rate of applicability.

3. Contactless, thereby minimizes hygiene concerns during scanning- In addition to being hygienic since the scanning is completed in mid-air without the need for the user's palm to touch a surface and thereby minimizes possible psychological resistance to its use attributable to hygiene concerns, the device is user-friendly in that scanning can be completed in a natural manner that is not awkward to the user.

* High accuracy rate: Fujitsu's internal research resulted in false acceptance rate of less than 0.00008% and a false rejection rate of only 0.01%. The false acceptance rate is the rate at which someone other than the actual person is falsely recognized. The false rejection rate is the rate at which the actual person is not recognized accurately.

** mPollux: Log-in authentication middleware developed by Fujitsu Services Oy in Finland, which offers more than six types of various authentication functions.