A report on silicon problems, from Electronic Engineering Times of April 26:
"Chicago - A year ago, makers of biometric identification devices such as fingerprint readers were unveiling new silicon products, saying their time had come to replace optical systems in security applications. But at Comdex here last week, a few vendors admitted that most biometric prototypes shipped in the past year failed to live up to their promise. Silicon devices couldn't survive several touches from a human hand, nor could they withstand such environmental shocks as electrostatic discharges produced when a finger touches the sensor.
"'The technologies haven't been robust enough,' said Julia Webb, marketing director at BioMetric Identification Inc. (Sherman Oaks, Calif.). But despite problems with reliability and still-high costs, vendors at the tiny biometric section at Comdex/Spring had a slew of new products in tow.
"'We announced our prototype a year ago, but we delayed our shipments for six months while we re-engineered the chip and added protection for up to 8 kV,' said a spokesman for Infineon Technologies (San Jose, Calif.). 'The chip has to be touched, but it's difficult to protect it from ESD, heat, the moisture of a wet finger.'
"AuthenTec Inc. (Melbourne, Fla.), which was said to be close to shipping fingerprint-sensing chips well before it spun off from Harris Corp. in December, only last week formally launched the technology. Large-volume shipments aren't expected until at least next year. . . ."
==================
Hmmm . . . I guess silicon worked better in the lab in controlled conditions.
Also saw in reports that AuthenTec is moving into bigger space, since they expect to have 70 people working there eventually, not just the present 35 on staff. And Digital Persona's U are U device, according to PC Magazine, will have a network version coming out at the end of the second quarter of 1999 . . . about a year behind the IDT product, it seems. Where's the competition for OEM devices? If we see any announcements about new Compaq-like deals, is there anyone else out there besides IDX/IDT? |
