Japanese card brand JCB is testing a biometric platform that it claims has an accuracy level of only one false acceptance in one billion transactions.
JCB will work with Universal Robot Co. and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology to test UR's server-based "light palm authentication" that takes a biometric palm print and vein identification of card and account holders.
Rather than using near-infrared light to capture vein patterns, Universal Robot has made it possible to do so with visible light for authentication purposes, allowing it to operate through a smartphone camera, JCB said in a Friday press release.
The registration and payment flow tests are taking place at JCB headquarters in Tokyo, focusing on capturing customer palm prints and vein patterns through a smartphone camera and storing that data on a server.
The server would perform authentication tasks and then return the results to the smartphone during a payment transaction, JCB said.
JCB customers would need to register palm information into the authentication server only once, and it would also be available for other future services the card brand is studying.
The card brand says its claim of one in one billion false acceptance rate is calculated from a 0.0003% rate for both palm vein pattern and palm print authentication.
Universal Robot has patented the technology in Japan and the U.S.
