Pocket-sized, portable, private: the plusID Personal Biometric Token

Biometrics for personal identity verification has generally been a matter of fixed equipment. The apparatus is attached to a gate, door, or computer, with all the expense, disruption, and downtime associated with the installation of new infrastructure. “What we did, early on, was to look at that,” said John Petze, CEO of Privaris, the Charlottesville, Virginia-based fingerprint biometrics firm. “We said, wait a minute, it doesn’t have to be that way. The security system wants proof of identity. Wouldn’t it be possible to satisfy that demand with something that can be carried on the person? Well, it is possible.” Accordingly, Privaris developed what it believes is the world’s first multi-function, personal identity verification device: the plusID personal biometric token, which in 2007 was named New Product of the Year by Access Control and Security Systems. The publication’s sixth annual award cited Privaris’s “groundbreaking approach” to biometrics as offering organizations in any industry “not just an effective solution to the problem of reliable identity verification, but a convenient and simple one.”

Use of the keyfob-sized plusID requires only that the individual withdraw it from pocket or purse and slide their finger across it. The device reads the fingerprint and compares it against an enrolled template. This will have been stored securely within the plusID when it was issued by the security department of the agency or company — as distinguished from a database. When there’s a match, the plusID then outputs an access credential that enables the transaction to be completed. A key element of the Privaris solution is that it outputs credentials which are compatible with existing systems. Normally, adding the assurance of biometric identity verification to the security program in a building requires ripping the standard readers out of the wall to make way for the biometric station. With the plusID, which outputs signals compatible with the vast majority of security and access control systems in use today, this is unnecessary. Petze points out that this eliminates at a stroke three friction points that have slowed the adoption of biometrics: the cost, complexity, and headaches of installing new hardware. He said, “Biometrics is customarily deployed in places where it absolutely must be. The client is willing to tolerate a lot to get it in because there is no other solution. But there’s a middle ground where biometrics can offer a tremendous improvement in security, convenience, auditing,