Contactless finger and face capturing on a secure handheld embedded device

Traveler flows and crossings at the external borders of the EU are increasing and are expected to increase even more in the future; trends which encompass great challenges for travelers, border guards and the border infrastructure. In this paper, we present a new handheld device that enables border control authorities to check European, visaholding and frequent third country travelers in a comfortable, fast and secure way. The mobile solution incorporates new multimodal biometric capturing and matching units for face and 4-finger authentication. Thereby, the focus is on the capturing unit and fingerprint verification, which is evaluated in detail. The use in border control requires high security measurements and trustworthy use of credentials, which are also presented. Tests of the handheld device at a land border indicate great acceptance by travelers and border guards.