Still sounding like something from a sci-fi flick, fingerprint-recognition technology is coming to fruition in the wireless arena, with funding from top technology firms pushing along product development and launches.
AuthenTec Inc., which develops biometric fingerprint sensors and fingerprint algorithms, has watched demand for its product grow in the past year.
To date, the company has shipped several million fingerprint sensors, which are about one-third the size of a paper clip, into cell phones in Japan and Korea, said Steve Mansfield, AuthenTec’s vice president of marketing.
NTT DoCoMo’s 505 series phones, which launched a year ago, include AuthenTec fingerprint sensors, as do the three newer versions of the device introduced since then.
By the end of 2004, AuthenTec expects to have more than 3-percent marketshare penetration in Japan. “That’s pretty impressive for a start up company here in Melbourne, Fla.,” said Mansfield.
The private, venture-backed company, 55-employees strong, has raised $65 million in private venture money. Its funding rounds have been led by technology investors including Texas Instruments Inc., Sierra Ventures and Carlyle Venture Partners.
AuthenTec is focused primarily on the wireless space, which makes up 55 percent of its sales. The company also makes fingerprint sensors for other marketplaces, including personal computers, access control, personal digital assistants and automotives. “We mold our technology to work in each marketplace,” said Mansfield.
Today about 25 percent of the company’s sales are in the PC market and about 20 percent in access control.
AuthenTec’s success, according to Mansfield, can be attributed partly to its TruePrint technology for fingerprinting. TruePrint is a “sub-surface based technology,” explained Mansfield, that uses a radio-frequency technique to scan the live layer underneath the surface of the finger. Other fingerprinting technologies are “surface-based sensors,” and have trouble reading fingers that are dirty or have any kind of skin damage, including dry, sweaty, callused, warn or elderly fingers.
So far, AuthenTec’s technology has been used mainly for personal data protection. “A lot of phones have a lot of personal information on them now,” said Mansfield. A phone with a fingerprint sensor can require a user to be authenticated to gain access to personal information, including contacts, calendars, passwords or photos. Users can opt what to protect and can enroll multiple users on the phone.
Many more fingerprint technology-enabled applications are around the corner, with at least six emerging in Japan, “and a gazillion more right behind them,” Mansfield said.
Among them, mobile payment transactions are being authorized with fingerprints; a railway is using fingerprint recognition to enable access onto trains; real estate developers are using fingerprints as e-keys; an airline is using the technology for pre-boarding flights; a ticket distributor is using fingerprint technology to enable ticket purchases via phones and to allow access to venues; and customers are using it to download mobile games.
Each of these applications is in the pilot stage or transitioning to a public launch, according to Mansfield.
By the end of this year, AuthenTec expects to sell 3 million fingerprint sensors into Japan, said Mansfield. Next, the company plans to target Korea. Mansfield speculated that China will launch fingerprint technology in the first half of 2005, Europe will launch it in the second half of 2005 and the United States will follow in the early 2006 time frame.
In further validation of demand for fingerprint technology on wireless devices, Silicon Valley-based Atrua Technologies Inc. was expected to announce this week it has raised $12 million in Series B financing, led by NeoCarta Ventures and existing investors including Nokia Venture Partners, Ericsson Venture Partners and Intel Capital.
Atrua, now in production with its first product, has garnered interest from the mobile space, as well as from companies that make USB memory devices and MP3 players, according to Anthony Gioeli, the company’s president and chief executive officer.
Atrua’s fingerprint sensors are now shipping to manufacturers in Asia, including leading mobile-phone manufacturers and other electronic device companies, and Gioeli said he expects to see products in the market by the end of this quarter or early next quarter.
Aside from fingerprint-recognition uses for authentication and m-commerce, Atrua is also in talks with the gaming community and application developers to use fingerprint algorithms to develop multimedia controls for wireless devices. Using the technology, a user’s finger would act as a mouse or cursor to navigate the screen, scroll through menus and to enable four-dimensional gaming functionality, according to Gioeli.
