Introduction

As the Internet and e-commerce has grown, so has the need for greater security. The traditional method of authentication—using password—is no longer sufficient to ensure security. Now, the higher security level required can be achieved by using the recognition technologies relying on personal, unique bio-features for authentication such as the human face proportions, fingerprints, iris patterns or a handwritten signature, as these unique human attributes can not be duplicated, forged, or stolen.

Penpower started the research and development on Bio-authentication related technologies in 2001 and has developed technologies like SSL encoding and decoding security technology and FaceMetrix technology. By use of a normal camera, FaceMetrix can extract automatically facial images, recognize proactively, determine the identification, and save the facial images for later reference. FaceMetrix provides a higher degree of security than password-based security measures. And users of FaceMetrix do not need to remember a password, which may need to be changed from time to time to avoid the password being compromised. Face recognition is more convenient and secure from the users' point of view. Facemetrix can be applied not only to access control but also to areas of confidentiality management, POS and fake ID prevention.  With the rapid evolution on manufacturing technology and decreasing cost of IC chips, FaceMetrix is penetrating into consumer electronics products with the aim to increase the value to the products.