The latest development and application of finger vein recognition technology

    We live in an era where passwords are everywhere. Whether it is the national, commercial finance, enterprise access control system, or personal card and computer login, passwords are undoubtedly the most widely used security protection method. But this is also an era where problems such as snooping, cracking, and theft are rampant. Even if more and more complex passwords make people feel safe, a person will have problems such as memory confusion and forgetfulness when facing too many passwords. This has given rise to more secure, confidential and convenient biometric technologies such as face recognition, iris recognition, and fingerprint recognition. Among them, fingerprint recognition applications are in the limelight but are easy to be counterfeited and stolen. Some individuals cannot be identified because their fingerprints have few features or under special conditions such as wet or damaged fingers. Therefore, people hope for a safer and more convenient way of confidentiality with better confidentiality, higher reliability, and more convenience. Finger vein recognition technology came into being and is called the world's top biometric technology by the industry.

　　Medical research has proven that the shape of finger veins is unique and stable: that is, the finger vein pattern of each person is different; the vein patterns of different fingers of the same person are also different; the vein shape of healthy adults no longer changes, which provides a medical basis for finger veins. According to the expert team of a research institute of the Ministry of Public Security, it has been concluded that finger vein biometric technology is currently the safest and most reliable technology and will become the mainstream biometric technology in many fields.

　　1. Technical Principles of Finger Vein Access Control System

　　The finger vein access control system consists of a front end (finger vein reader) and a back end (access control controller). The front end is responsible for recording and collecting the acquired images, and then quickly feeding back the information to the back end. The back end controller analyzes and processes the information after receiving it, and gives instruction results to guide the front end to perform operations. It is the brain command center of the system integration. A healthy and stable back end plays a vital role in the stability and security of the entire system.

　　1. Working principle of the front end (finger vein reader)

　　The hemoglobin in the red blood cells in the human veins is the reduced hemoglobin of oxygen, which absorbs near-infrared rays. Therefore, when near-infrared rays are irradiated to the fingers, only the veins will have a weak reflection, thus forming a vein pattern image. Using a specific wavelength of light to irradiate the fingers can obtain a clear image of the finger veins. This inherent scientific feature can be used to analyze and process the acquired images to obtain the biological characteristics of the finger veins.

　　The finger vein reader is mainly composed of a shell, a security module, an infrared scanner, a data recorder and a chip, as shown in Figure 1.

　　Figure 1 Schematic diagram of finger vein head

　　2. Working principle of the backend (access controller)

　　The access control controller is the command and storage "brain" of the finger vein access control system. Its working principle is to provide security protection for a large amount of stored finger vein image information around the clock without logging in, so that all information will not be lost due to sudden power outages or hacker attacks. When performing image entry, it can quickly and effectively perform 1:n comparison and analysis of information, and then feedback specific operation instructions to the finger vein reader. If the entry is correct, the door opening command will be executed. If the entry is incorrect or it is violently demolished, the controller will refuse to open the door.

　　The structure of the access control controller is mainly composed of a shell, a control chip, etc., as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 Backend access controller

    2. Development Status of Finger Vein Access Control Products at Home and Abroad

　　At present, the finger vein core technology manufacturers are mainly Japanese brand manufacturers headed by Hitachi and their agents and salesmen in China or their shell companies, all of which are companies formed by the dispersion of Hitachi's core confidential technology. Hitachi is one of the earliest manufacturers in the world to master the relevant technology. It only launched mature products before 2011, with finger vein access control controllers priced at tens of thousands of yuan, and even finger vein access control systems priced at hundreds of thousands to millions. Their application in China is limited to high-end places with high security requirements such as bank vaults and prisons, while places with high confidentiality and high secrets dare not apply them because Hitachi and other foreign Japanese technologies. Hitachi's products are very mature in use and appearance, and the products are well-known, but the product self-system is relatively closed, the interface is not open to a high degree, the software Chinese process is incomplete, the use is not suitable for domestic habits, the market response is not flexible, the products are mediocre, the scope of secondary development of downstream products in the industry is small, and the price of the products is extremely expensive. In addition, the main technical personnel are all abroad. If you encounter technical problems, you must go through its resident office or send an EMAIL to a foreign country through English or Japanese files, and wait for technical support from other countries to get help. On the other hand, in the special field of biometric identity recognition involving privacy and secrets, the domestic security level requirements are getting higher and higher. The Snowden incident and the continuous foreign espionage incidents of stealing secrets remind us that the use of foreign technology in security products is becoming less and less safe and secure, and instead becomes a hidden danger to security.

　　The application of foreign core technologies in the domestic security field has the fundamental problem of confidentiality, which is also a major reason why Hitachi's technology has not been widely used in China. Several other manufacturers who use Japanese or Hitachi technology to launch their own brands also have the same problem when entering the core market of domestic identity recognition applications.

　　Foreign technology is expensive and difficult to apply, but the good news is that some domestic R&D companies have their own core finger vein technology. China has started the R&D and experiment of finger vein technology since 2005. At present, the core modules of the products can be put into use, and the price can be one-third of Japanese products. The basic performance and user experience are more Chinese, and there are obvious advantages in some aspects. More importantly, China is actively improving the application upgrade of the whole series of products from modules to integrated access control attendance, door locks, etc. through application cases. This shows us that the domestic products are good - domestic finger vein technology is expected to set off a revolution in the field of domestic biometrics.

　　At present, some manufacturers' intravenous products in China are all-in-one products with relatively simple functions. Some cannot be used online and have relatively low security. Once damaged, even if the alarm is triggered, the door has actually been opened and the loss caused cannot be recovered. Therefore, the all-in-one machine can only be used in places with relatively low security levels, but the cost performance of such low-level intravenous products will become low.

　　In addition, embedded high-end electronic locks, access control systems, and locks and access control and attendance products produced using fingerprint technology are already very common. However, fingerprints are easy to copy and unstable for some people to use, which has long puzzled mainstream manufacturers. The market acceptance and product profits of related products have been declining year by year, and they have become useless. Finger vein technology has begun to be used commercially on a large scale in overseas markets such as Japan, Taiwan, the Middle East, and Latin America, gradually replacing the original fingerprint, iris and other products. Most domestic security product manufacturers such as electronic lock manufacturers, access control manufacturers, and integrators have begun to prepare for the secondary development of finger vein supporting technology and related product upgrades. The birth of mature domestic finger vein core technology will promote the upgrading of the industry, and the majority of civilian and commercial customers have gradually gained a general understanding of finger vein products.

　　3. Technical innovation of industrial-grade high-end finger vein access control system

　　At present, the domestic finger vein modular technology has matured and quantified, which provides basic support for its widespread application in the field of security access control.

　　First of all, the finger vein access control system is not equal to the simple integration of products. It is a coordinated and systematic solution system through the matching of software and hardware. As far as the security industry is concerned, if the system is positioned to serve the national and commercial levels with high security and high confidentiality, it must be manufactured using industrial standards and cannot be simply embedded in various terminal products, such as access control, attendance machines, safes, car door locks, printers, etc. These can only be used at the civilian level or in enterprises with low confidentiality and security requirements. Therefore, a higher level of development is required to ensure the quality and functional safety of the hardware. For example, if physical isolation cannot be truly achieved on the circuit board, a short circuit will burn out the CPU. Such hardware products that are not safe in themselves have no market.

　　According to the management requirements of the State Administration of Quality and Technical Supervision and the Ministry of Public Security for security technology prevention products: implement the industrial product production license system and safety certification system. Production and sales without an industrial product production license are prohibited. In addition, in the special field of biometric identity recognition involving privacy secrets, the application of foreign core technologies in the domestic security field has fundamental problems involving confidentiality.

　　In order to overcome these obstacles, Jiade Hengan has proposed several technical innovations in the front end (finger vein reader), back end (access control controller), and overall design. In the front end, the front end of Jiade Hengan's finger vein access control system uses industrial-grade materials and can recognize 360° finger veins. Since fingerprint operation has become a habit of people, in order to provide security without changing habits, it is specially designed according to the fingerprint operation habits. It is easy and quick to use and can achieve quick feedback within 1 second.

Figure 3: Front-end of Jiade Hengan’s finger vein access control system

    The back-end (access control controller) part adopts many patents of the company, such as self-developed storage and retrieval technology, embedded technology, encryption technology, network technology and intelligent technology. According to different on-site conditions, it can communicate through Ethernet or RS485. The network communication mode is based on the network management TCP/IP LAN structure of the TCP/IP protocol as the backbone, and retains the RS485 bus structure with the terminal, and supports seamless connection with third-party systems (smart security platform, OA, ERP and other management software).

　　In terms of design innovation, Jiade Hengan's finger vein products adopt a split structure. The finger vein identifier is used by an external reader. The analysis and processing and control of the door alarm are all in the protected area. Even if the external reader is damaged or the terminal is removed, the door will not be opened, as shown in Figure 4. The identifier and the controller are seamlessly connected, omitting the cumbersome middleware such as connectors, converters, and communicators that need to be placed between the controller and the reader in some foreign vein products. In addition, the system is also compatible with the mainstream security software on the market.

　　Figure 4 Split design

　　4. Future development prospects of finger vein recognition technology

　　At present, in view of the conflict between technology and cost, the finger vein identification market is at a critical state of market explosion. Once the finger vein technology reaches a certain level of mass production and the technology is improved, it will be widely promoted to the civilian field and widely used in all aspects of people's lives. At present, all manufacturers are very concerned about the price of domestic technology. Relevant industry experts pointed out that under the premise of ensuring stable operation of the product and ensuring excellent recognition rate and other qualities, the technical characteristics of the finger vein determine that high-quality components are currently needed for product production. Excluding the core algorithm, the cost of the main components and materials will not be less than RMB 1,000. The market price of domestic core technology products has dropped significantly. It is hoped that with the investment of more manufacturers and the growth of the market, the cost can be further reduced in the future. Compared with the price of tens of thousands of yuan for foreign products, domestic manufacturers have also launched finger vein access control with their own technology, and the final price is less than RMB 1,000, but the product structure is simple, the design and workmanship are relatively rough, the product appearance is similar to that of foreign countries, and the application stability is poor. But low price alone is far from enough. As experts point out, the characteristics of finger vein access control technology currently require the support of high-performance and high-standard product design. If the fingerprint product is simply wrapped in a finger vein technology shell, its essence may not be as good as the fingerprint indicators.

　　At present, relevant national institutions are also formulating and planning to implement relevant product technical standards. We believe that through the cooperation of domestic core technologies and upstream and downstream manufacturers, China's finger vein recognition technology products have broad prospects for development. In the context of the country's vigorous promotion of industrial upgrading and technological innovation, the localization of finger vein technology will surely promote the upgrading of related industries. We also look forward to the early popularization of real high-tech finger vein products, so that everyone can experience a safe and convenient life when they forget their passwords and lose their keys.

　　We believe that 2014 will be the year when finger vein technology will make its debut in China. Just like more than a decade ago when people dropped their pagers and replaced them with mobile phones, finger vein biometrics will surely shine.

内容关联投票