SmartMetric, the creator of biometric cards with a fingerprint reader imbedded inside the card, is in the final stages of bringing to market its fingerprint activated cards.
SmartMetric has during the course of its research and development stage, had to overcome various serious issues relating to its core components.
Each issue has had a dramatic effect on the commercial movement of its cards from the development lab to commercial mass production.
(See the SmartMetric advanced biometric secured payments card in action, courtesy of SmartMetric and YouTube)
The most recent issue the company faced was related to using a third party’s fingerprint sensor component.
What the company calls the “swipe” sensor tested well in the company’s development stage but when moving to mass production it was found problematic.
One of the issues surrounding the sensor was its need for a metal bezel that of itself presented mass production issues.
“It is one thing to build a product in a lab, it is another thing to have the same product pass all the quality and performance issues while under manufacture,” said SmartMetric’s President and CEO, Chaya Hendrick.
SmartMetric, with its highly skilled team of engineers, has been able to rapidly move forward with incorporating a superior sensor that overcomes the mass production issues.
The new sensor component now being manufactured is what is referred to in the industry as a touch sensor.
This superior sensor component does not require a metal bezel around its edge and requires less active and passive components then the previous sensor.
Added to these advantages: it is less costly to assemble and overcomes the mass production issues of the previous sensor component.
SmartMetric’s engineers have moved quickly with integration of the new sensor and the company is expecting the new card to be out of mass production over the next six weeks.
The card’s contact EMV chip has been approved within the industry along with the card’s payment chip software. Upon completion of the mass production run, the company expects full approval and industry testing to be completed within a 4 to 6 weeks timeframe.
A notice of allowance has been granted to the inventor, Chaya Hendrick, by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a patent dealing with chip cards with fingerprint sensors.
