Veridium Wins Grant to Trial Biometric Android Authentication for Developing Regions

Veridium has received a grant award to help the company pursue Android authentication solutions for populations in developing countries. The grant comes by way of the Digital Financial Services Innovation Lab, a fintech accelerator program supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The funds will be used for a pilot project in a developing region that will test biometric authentication technology using standard Android smartphones. Veridium’s planned solution will revolve around its 4 Fingers TouchlessID system, which uses a smartphone’s rear camera to simultaneously capture four fingerprints; thus, no specialized biometric hardware is needed. Veridium intends to add a liveness detection capability to the process by requiring the user to take two photos of their fingers from different angles, allowing the system to create a 3D model of the fingerprints being scanned.

The solution could potentially have a significant impact in developing countries where biometric mobile technology has not yet proliferated, and where citizens may lack official identity documents. In addition to offering financial inclusion by helping to enable secure mobile banking services, Veridium’s solution could also help to reduce fraud in the regions where it is deployed, should the field tests prove successful.