IDEX receives European funding of an international project to develop a more secure smart card

IDEX and its French partner UINT receives European funding of project to develop a more secure smart card tailored for use in contactless payments by NFC technology. Very favourable assessment in the international evaluation. Ranked number one among the Norwegian applications and number five of several hundred applications in Europe.

Oslo, Norway, 12 January 2012: IDEX ASA and its French partner company UINT have been awarded a support grant from the European Eurostars programme. The approved project received a very favourable assessment in the international evaluation.

The objective is to develop a smart card with a fingerprint sensor that is suited for manufacturing in existing volume production lines for cards. This will be a significant step towards exploiting the potential presented by IDEX SmartFinger® Film, which is a very thin and bendable fingerprint sensor.

The biometric smart card will be tailored for new solutions in contactless payments by the use of near field communication (NFC) technology.

"The result will be significantly more secure smart cards than those currently in use. Implementation of the SmartFinger Film secures that only the appropriate person can use the card. The fingerprint is acquired and verified on the card itself. No personal information is transmitted, so the personal data integrity is protected," said Ralph W. Bernstein, CEO of IDEX.

The planned project period is two years and total cost amounts to more than NOK 12 million, shared about equally between the partners. The approved support grant will cover about half the cost.

The IDEX and UINT project was ranked number one among the Norwegian applications and number five of several hundred applications in Europe in the latest Eurostars grant round. The first evaluation stage concerned technical properties of the project, which were considered by two independent experts. In the second stage, the project application was ranked by an international evaluation panel consisting of members elected by the 39 member countries.

The external experts reviewing the project made a very favourable statement: "Excellent proposal from two SMEs with a very good project plan. (Ed. note: SME=Small and Medium Enterprises.) Potential significant advancements, representing a new market orientated solution in the area of banking transaction. Technological risk is high. Market addressed is huge. Strategically important for both parties."

"This is a strong and firm recognition of the work IDEX has carried out in its development of the SmartFinger technology, and it confirms that the technology will contribute to solve the problems related to card fraud and ID theft," said Bernstein. "The technology risk is inherent in the innovative phase, and is one of the criteria for the support grant," he added.

Eurostars is a joint initiative by EUREKA and the EU Commission to promote research in small and medium size enterprises. The approved projects are funded by the respective countries and the EU.

EUREKA is a European network for innovation, with the purpose of enhancing European competitiveness by stimulating market oriented research and development. EUREKA is more market oriented than the major EU research programmes. EUREKA was established in 1985 and now has members in the region spanning from Ireland to Russia and from Norway to Cyprus and Israel.

IDEX press contact

CEO Ralph W. Bernstein, +47 9305 9303, ralph.bernstein@idex.no.

About UINT

UINT is a card engineering design house, which invents, designs and manufactures active smart cards for its own distribution channel and for its customers. UINT aims to be a leader in embedded electronics in various powered devices especially ISO-format cards that are autonomous (carrying its own energy). UINT's PhDs and engineers deploy their strong experience in research and development of electronics, security transactions and manufacturing of smart cards, mastering all the processes and life cycles of products from inception to manufacturing. UINT is based in Orsay, France. UINT is member of different clusters such as System@tic, Scientipôle Initiative, PÔLE TES and Optics Valley. UINT was established in 2008 and is privately held.For more information, please visit www.uint.fr or contact UINT at: contact@uint.fr.