Fingerprint readers
Fingerprints are one of the oldest biometric identifiers. They have a set of characteristics, singular points and minutiae, that are unique to each individual and difficult to alter, making them reliable means of identification. Although fingerprint scanners are most commonly associated with law enforcement applications, their popularity has immensely grown since the beginning of the smartphone industry. Therefore, they became widely accessible in security industries, workplaces, and mobile devices for individual identification and access control.
There are four types of fingerprint scanners:
- Optical scanners - the oldest fingerprint identification method capturing the fingerprint as a picture and then using algorithms to extract its characteristics.
- Capacitive or CMOS scanners - as the name suggests, they are using arrays of tiny capacitor circuits to collect data, connect them to conductive plates and track the characteristics of a fingerprint.
- Ultrasonic scanners - the newest method of capturing the fingerprint by analyzing ultrasonic pulse reflected from the fingerprint’s characteristics, such as ridges and pores.
- Thermal scanners - work by sensing the temperature differences between the contact surface and fingerprint characteristics.
At Biometric Supply single, dual and 10 finger capture fingerprint scanners are available that use optical or capacitive technologies.