ABSTRACT
In this paper the potential of polymer thick-film sensors are assessed for use as biometric sensors on smartcards. Piezoelectric and piezoresistive sensors have been printed on flexible polyester, then bonded to smartcard blanks. The tactile interaction of a person with these sensors has been investigated. It was found that whilst piezoresistive films offer good dynamic and static sensing properties, the relative complexity of their measurement circuitry over that of piezoelectrics, favours the use of piezoelectric films in the smartcard arena. The outline of a novel biometric discrimination method is presented, for which an equal false-acceptance and false-rejection error rate of 2.3% is reported.
