Finger vein authentication is an authentication method using a biometrics technique to identify individuals based on their biological characteristics, and utilizes vein patterns in fingers for the identification. The method extracts vein patterns from camera images of finger veins that are photographed by having near infrared light beamed onto fingers. Identification is conducted by matching the extracted vein patterns with pre-registered vein patterns.
Vein patterns are complicated, and no one shares identical patterns. Because of this, the method can identify individuals with high accuracy, and so it is increasingly being used in a variety of fields. Moreover, as veins inside fingers are used for identification, it is extremely difficult to counterfeit or tamper such veins or fraud identification by any third party. As such, the method is expected to realize a high-level of security.
To be identified, one only needs to hold his or her hand over the equipment. Due to such ease of operation, finger vein authentication is becoming increasingly popular for such applications as room access control and personal identification of automatic teller machines (ATMs) at banks.
