Smart Cards Emerging as Key Topic at Trustech 2016

The Trustech 2016 expo is next week, and biometric smart cards are emerging as a potential standout topic during the event.

Earlier this week, NEXT Biometrics announced plans to show off its flexible biometric smart card technology at the digital security event, and it was only a couple of days later that IDEX followed suit with its own demo plans. Both companies have been hard at work with partners to bring develop their solutions: Around the start of the month, IDEX announced that it was making “significant progress” in its efforts with Safran Identity & Security; and NEXT has been working with Taiwan-based Innolux to build up production capacity in order to meet multiple flexible sensor orders with shipments scheduled for 2017.

Those biometric companies aren’t the only ones seeking to pioneer this frontier. Having established a leading position in the mobile biometrics market, Fingerprint Cards has lately sought to branch out into new areas including smart cards. Meanwhile, this week also saw an announcement from Lithuania-based biometrics company Neurotechnology that its MegaMatcher On Card algorithm had passed an important NIST test clearing the way for major government applications.

Of course, there’s cause for some caution, too. In Precise Biometrics’ recent Q3 update, CEO Håkan Persson reported that his company’s “[s]ales in the Mobile Smart Card Solutions business area are at a lower level than originally expected,” explaining that negotiations with the US government “are being affected by discussions about how digital alternatives can replace smart cards for mobile access to information.” And commenting on FPC’s efforts in smart cards in that company’s Q3 report, CEO Christian Fredrikson said that “it will take time before it has developed into a mass market”.

Nevertheless, it remains a market of interest to FPC and Precise Biometrics, and there’s no denying the appetite for smart card sensors that NEXT has reported. As such, Trustech should prove interesting for the latter, IDEX, and any number of attendees in the market for biometric smart card solutions.

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November 24, 2016 – by Alex Perala