A Statista study from January 2023 has shown that smartphone penetration into the U.S. population has grown from 20.2% of the population in 2010 to 72.7% in 2021 – a growth of over three-fold in just over a decade.  This proliferation of mobile devices in the past two decades, not only in the United States but globally also, has led to a growing trend towards the use of mobile touchless fingerprinting technology in many industries and organizations concerned with identity verification, proofing, and enrollment. But what exactly is mobile touchless fingerprinting, how and where is it used, and how can it benefit your organization?

Mobile Touchless Fingerprinting

Mobile touchless fingerprinting is a method of digitally capturing fingerprints using a device that does not require physical contact with the finger. Instead of pressing a finger onto a physical hardware scanner, mobile touchless fingerprinting, such as ONYX®, uses advanced imaging technologies to capture a high-quality digital image of the fingerprint from a short distance and converts it into a machine-readable digital artifact for matching, verification, and system enrollment into identity databases.

There are several benefits to this approach. For one, it’s more hygienic – there’s no need for individuals to physically touch a potentially contaminated scanner, significantly reducing the risk of bacterial or virus transmission. It’s also much more convenient; the process can be completed quickly and easily, without the need for individuals to stop what they’re doing and press their finger onto a stationary hardware fingerprint scanner.

But the benefits of mobile touchless fingerprinting go beyond just convenience and hygienics. The technology can also help to improve biometric data fidelity, fingerprint capture accuracy, and identity security.

One primary benefit of touchless mobile fingerprint like ONYX is the ability of the system to capture high-quality fingerprint images even in the most challenging environmental conditions. Traditional, purpose-built hardware fingerprint scanners can sometimes struggle to get clear images of a fingerprint, particularly if the finger is dirty, wet, or damaged.  Less-than-ideal conditions such as this can affect the system’s ability to capture technically-appropriate images for the purpose of interfacing with advanced biometric information systems. On the other hand, most modern mobile devices installed with ONYX technology can capture high-fidelity images even under these challenging circumstances, making it easier to accurately identify individuals, verify personages, and enroll humans into biometric-based databases

ONYX also has cutting edge integrated liveness detection to mitigate malicious identity events and make it more difficult for bad actors trying to mislead computer systems by using fake fingerprints or other methods of identity deception.

There are many potential applications for this technology in industry, security, and commerce. Here are just a few examples:

• Law enforcement: Mobile touchless fingerprinting can be used by law enforcement agencies to quickly and accurately identify individuals during investigations, detainment, or arrests. It can also be used to verify the identities of suspects, victims, and witnesses.  Systems that leverage background check capabilities can further use these captured fingerprint images for immediate processing as well, accelerating the results of when comprehensive identity validation is needed.
• Border control: Mobile touchless fingerprinting can be used by border control agencies to verify the identities and enrollment of travelers at border crossings. This can help to improve security and reduce the risk of identity fraud.
• Banking and finance: Mobile touchless fingerprinting can be used by financial institutions to verify the identities of customers and prevent rampant identity fraud present in the industry. It can also be used to verify the identities of employees, helping to ensure the security of sensitive financial information. It can also facilitate the convenient use of know-your-customer (KYC) workflows to allow for remote account creation and preliminary client checks.
• Healthcare: Mobile touchless fingerprinting can be used by healthcare providers to verify the identities of patients to ensure consistent tracking and appropriate medical treatment. It can also be used to verify the identities of employees to help protect patient privacy and sensitive healthcare information.
• Travel: Facilities and services that conduct travel services can leverage mobile touchless fingerprinting capabilities to help identify traveler identity to ensure optimized throughput and security across national travel infrastructures such as aviation and rail.  Expensive and bulky purpose-built hardware scanners can be replaced with more cost-effective and ubiquitous common smartphone devices.

The potential applications for mobile touchless fingerprinting technology like ONYX are endless across a wide variety of applications and industries. This technology has the potential to revolutionize the way organizations capture fingerprints and verify identities, offering significant gains in convenience, accuracy, and security.

If you are considering implementing this technology in your organization, it’s worth taking the time to explore the potential benefits and determine how mobile touchless fingerprinting could be used to meet your needs and requirements.