Hitachi announced that it will begin the sale of its compact and contact less Finger Vein biometric authentication device and SDK (Software Development Kit). Full-scale availability and sales begin July in Europe, North America, Asia, Oceania and others. Hitachi developed the product based on the original model designed for the Japanese market and sold in Japan since October 2006. The system allows PC users to guard against illegitimate access or leakage of information on their computers by using the vein patterns in their finger as the key to manage their computer login process. The finger vein unit has achieved its small size, high accuracy rate and low cost by employing a single-chip LSI design with this device.

In addition, an SDK is available to allow for development of custom applications or integration into existing application environments.

The finger vein pattern recognition technology employs the vein pattern of the finger as the biometric feature. The finger vein pattern is impossible to counterfeit because the vein is inside the body. The process of data collection is based on a contact-less principle. Light penetrates through the finger using a light-transmission technique to allow the detection of the structure of the vein pattern. The vein pattern is image-processed using a special algorithm resulting in digital data that can be stored in a relevant data repository.

Hitachi has already commercialized the operating system and various applications including PC login devices and validation devices for ATMs for various fields in Japan. The company is targeting 10,000 units/year for the IT security field where big growth in the future is expected.