The Story Under Your Hand
Exploring palm vein scanning biometrics.
Look at the palm of your hand. What do you see?
On the surface, all you see are palm lines ranging in a variety of shapes and sizes. But, have you ever wondered what lies beneath the skin on your palm?
If you peer under the layers of skin, you are left with veins. Veins are structures that help your body get blood back to the heart. The human body contains up to 100,000 miles of blood vessels!
Every single person has a unique palm vein pattern under their palm. So, how can we use this feature to identify and differentiate people?
Welcome to the world of palm vein scanning biometrics!
If you missed it, please check out my articles on the basics of biometric technology and fingerprint recognition technology!
How Do Palm Vein Scanners Work?
Palm vein scanners are one of the newest and unknown forms of biometric technology. But, how do they work?
Firstly, a hand is scanned with a wave of near-infrared light. Near-infrared light is harmless for the general population and is the same type of light that a TV remote has.
The image of the hand taken with this type of light produces a black and white image from which you can faintly see the vein pattern. After adjusting the filters on the infrared image, a clearer picture of the vein pattern in the palm can be detected.
This picture is used for comparison with the stored scans in the database. One way to think about the database is what you have to do when you set up a phone with touch ID. Before you can get Touch ID to work, you need to load your fingerprint into the phone.
So, before any biometric technology of this sort could work, a sample would have to be loaded into the database.
Advantages & Disadvantages
The main difference between palm vein scanners and other physical biometrics is the fact that veins are internal. Another example of a physical biometric is fingerprint recognition.
One of the biggest worries with fingerprint recognition is the belief that it is not secure because fingerprints can be somewhat easily faked. But, that is not the case with these scanners. Since the vein pattern can only be seen with the near-infrared light, it makes it significantly harder to steal someone’s biometric signature.
Secondly, no one, not even identical twins, has the same vein pattern. Internal vein patterns are also reliable because they never change. Another issue with fingerprint biometrics is the idea that if the fingerprint becomes damaged, which could be a result of a burn, the fingerprint becomes unidentifiable. However, this is not the case with palm vein biometrics.
There’s one more big advantage to palm vein scanners that has to do with COVID-19. One heightened point of sensitivity right now is interacting with devices that a lot of people use, like ATMs or card readers. But if we linked our bank accounts to our vein scan, that worry would be eliminated.
Palm vein biometrics are performed through a scanner, almost all of which require no contact. This means that they are much more hygienic than most other technology of their kind, which is a relief considering the circumstances that we are living through right now. The palm vein scanning market has seen a drastic increase as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite their advantages, these scanners are not perfect. Body temperature, distance from the scanner, and humidity can all affect the quality of a scan as well.
Palm scanners can also not be used for surveillance, which many other biometrics, like eye recognition, can be used for. Essentially, this means that palm scanners cannot be used to catch criminals.
Companies Working on this Technology
Two of the major companies working on this technology are Amazon One Palm and Keyo.
Amazon One Palm is currently focusing on technology that can be adopted at their Amazon Go Stores. Their goal is to develop a system in which a palm signature can be used as payment at a store.
Keyo is considered to be the leader in this type of technology. They are working on palm sensors that can be applicable to a variety of situations, like identification, time logging, and payments.
Palm scanners are also more accurate in reference to the false rejection rate which accounts for the number of times someone who should be approved is denied and how many unauthorized users are allowed by the system.
Facial recognition biometrics can have a false rejection rate of 2.6%. However, their palm vein scanner has an FRR of only 0.01%. That means that they are 260 times more accurate.
Building A Palm Vein Scanner
I’m currently taking the opportunity to build my own palm vein scanner. Using Ibrahim Irfan’s tutorial, I am creating a palm vein scanning device in a shoebox. Here’s a picture of my work in progress:
This project is giving me some experience working with a circuit system and coding a Raspberry Pi sensor.
Key Takeaways
- Palm vein scanners use the internal vein pattern of an individual to identify them.
- They use near-infrared light to create a black and white image of the veins in your hand which is compared to a stored image in a database.
- Everyone has a unique vein pattern, which is not visible to the human eye, making palm vein scans secure and reliable.
- They are also contactless, meaning that they are hygienic during times of COVID-19.
- Two companies working on this technology are Keyo and Amazon One Palm.
I hope you enjoyed learning about palm vein scanners. If you’d like to chat about this topic, feel free to email me or connect with me on LinkedIn!
Nikitha Ambatipudi is a 15 year old sophomore from Glendale, CA. She is an innovator at The Knowledge Society who is delving into the field of biometrics.
