Biometric traces enable bank cards identify cardholders

From the gas station to the department store – paying for something without cash is commonplace. To make such payments more secure, the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research (IGD), has engineered a solution for inspecting the handwritten signatures directly on the bank card.

The biometric ''on-card comparison'' additionally makes payment transactions more convenient and secure. © Fraunhofer IGD

The biometric ''on-card comparison'' additionally makes payment transactions more convenient, and it works with any ordinary commercial credit card. At this year's CeBIT in Hannover, the experts will unveil their latest prototype development.

Who isn't familiar with this scenario? You are standing at the check-out counter, a long line waiting behind you, and all you have in your wallet is just a handful of old receipts – and, thank goodness – the bank cards! There' s just no question that when it comes to paying for something, credit cards and the EC bank card make life easier... unless the cardholder completely forgets the PIN (personal identification number).

It is obviously much easier for the consumer if a purchase transaction can be sealed with a signature. But it is just as easy for a practiced hand to forge a florid signature, right? Wrong, if the biometric parameters are measured.

Like getting parcel post
The magic words which researchers at Fraunhofer IGD used to realise a bank card that can recognise a customer by his or her signature is ''signature dynamics.''

Each person's signature is completely unique; in the process of signing, he or she leaves behind an extraordinary – and therefore, extremely difficult to forge – biometric trace. Based on the chronological progression of the pen's position, which is traced onto a graphic tablet or touchscreen while signing, the Fraunhofer system ascertains if the cardholder's signature is genuine.