Sensors 'talking' to finger swipes

Chris Cobbs
Orlando Sentinel
Aug. 19, 2006 12:00 AM

ORLANDO - Pay for the groceries, lock the house, start the car, check in at a doctor's office or log on to a laptop.

An evolving digital tool, biometric-fingerprint technology holds the promise of replacing or lessening reliance on everyday necessities such as credit cards, key chains and passwords. It even helps registered travelers get through security at Orlando International Airport .

A supporter of the use of biometrics, Scott Moody is CEO of AuthenTec, a company that produces sensors that can read a fingerprint.

"Looking ahead, I think the use of this technology could become ubiquitous," he said. "It would just be taken for granted as part of the everyday world."

Moody's 8-year-old firm, which employs 89, has grown rapidly, thanks to four infusions of venture capital totaling $63.5 million, with shipments increasing in the past three years, from 1.5 million units to a projected 7 million to 8 million in 2006.

AuthenTec is among several global suppliers for a market comprising computers, cellphones, home security, automobiles and building-access controls, presenting a target of sales worth $5 billion to $10 billion this year, Moody said.

Biometric-fingerprint readers are housed in a bit of silicon not much bigger than a fingernail clipping. They are powerful enough to capture a fingerprint image that, when magnified, looks like closely packed mountains and valleys in a desert landscape.

Silicon slivers are seen as a tool for safeguarding sensitive personal and financial data stored on laptops used by the military, banks, businesses and medical firms.

Many business-model laptops have biometric devices, said Ray Sawall, Gateway senior manager for professional-notebook management.

Beyond security, convenience may be a major driver for wider adoption in the consumer world, said Jonathan Penn, an analyst at Forrester Research who sees biometric devices as a tool for making purchases at the supermarket and other stores.

"I can get through the checkout line faster, and I don't have to carry cash or a debit or credit card," he said.

A fingerprint-scanning device linked to bank or credit-card accounts, developed by Pay by Touch of San Francisco, is in use at 2,000 sites across the country, including Coast to Coast, a Tampa convenience store.

Future uses include the ability to pay at the pump for gasoline and to register for a visit at a doctor's office, said John Morris, Pay by Touch president.

Individuals seeking to cash payroll or government checks can use a similar biometric tool at Zions Bank of Utah .

"It's convenient for customers, and it keeps us from being defrauded," said David Fuhriman, senior vice president of retail-product management at AuthenTec.

Still, another version of the technology is a key-chain fob, called plusID, developed by Privaris Inc., a privately held firm in Charlottesville , Va. The device, 1 inch long, that uses an AuthenTec sensor, is a security tool to unlock doors and log on to computers at businesses, said Barry Johnson, Privaris president and CEO. It also could be used to lock and unlock home and car doors, he said.

Before biometric technology replaces credit cards and makes the key ring obsolete, barriers remain, industry analysts and experts said.

The $5 sensors are too pricey for mass adoption when considering that a credit card now is produced at a cost of pennies and that millions of cards are distributed each year. Also, awareness of the sensors and demand for them are slight and concerns linger about how secure they really are, experts said.

"There's value in it for locking a phone or navigating games," said Chris Bierbaum, Sprint Nextel innovation manager. But . . . "I want to see more testing on security. I need to see confirmation from a gazillion tests."