Secure cash with biometrics

Issue 3 2020 Access Control & Identity Management

Cash is exposed to many risks, including fraud, theft and unintentional loss. What is important though are the measures put in place to mitigate such risks. Instead of relying solely on PINs, keys and passwords, Suprema advises customers to integrate biometrics into their cash handling solutions, such as cash vaults, safes, cash drawers, ATMs and cash-in-transit vehicles.

Suprema offers a wide range of high-performance fingerprint modules to satisfy specific criteria. There are different sensor models, such as optical, waterproof optical, PIV certification, live finger detection, capacitive and steel coated capacitive to choose from. Many of these biometric modules have been deployed across Africa by leading companies involved in banking, cash issuance, cash in transit, cash deposit boxes and point-of-sale solutions.

Walter Rautenbach, managing director of neaMetrics, the distributor of Suprema in Africa says, “We have a team of developers providing local SA software engineering support which gives our clients the ability to fast track development and to shorten the time-to-market. We offer our knowledge in biometric integrations to solution providers, taking solutions from concept to implementation in the shortest possible time while adhering to best practices.”

The Suprema embedded module range is comprised of:

• SFM Slim is an ultra-slim FAP20 standalone embedded module with FBI PIV compliance and Suprema’s Conformance Decision Engine (CDE) technology that captures an optimal fingerprint image for all finger types. SFM Slim provides a high level of security through 256-bit AES fingerprint data encryption.

• SFM6000 is a solution for large-scale yet fast authentication with capacity for 25 000 templates. This series supports multiple interfaces including RS-232 and USB 2.0.

• SFM5500 is a high-end standalone fingerprint module equipped with versatile external interfaces and offering comprehensive functionalities. It can be used as a complete standalone fingerprint access reader by itself.

• SFM5000 is a UniFinger module equipped with Suprema’s fingerprint authentication algorithm. It is optimised for performance while minimising power consumption.

• SFM4000 is specially designed for lock and safe manufacturers looking for an inexpensive, reliable biometric solution with extra low power consumption and compact size.

• SFM3000 is a cost effective fingerprint identification module equipped with the essentials for fingerprint identification and template storage. SFM3000 is suitable for most of the applications where it processes fingerprint recognition and a host controller is used to handle other operations.

An evaluation kit (EVK) is available for each module and includes Suprema’s SFM SDK. The EVK allows developers to explore core functionality and it provides software tools and technical documents for developing and testing application systems.

The SFM SDK is a collection of APIs for the interface with SFM modules. In addition to simple wrapper functions for packet protocol, it also provides high-level APIs such as template DB management, image manipulation, etc. By using the SDK, developers could write Win32 applications quickly without knowing the minute details of packet protocol.


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