A new authentication method employing a laser and a scanner is proposed to improve image contrast of the finger vein and to extract blood flow pattern for liveness detection. A micromirror reflects a laser beam and performs a uniform raster scan. Transmissive vein images were obtained, and compared with those of an LED. Blood flow patterns were also obtained based on speckle images in perfusion and occlusion. Curvature ratios of the finger vein and blood flow intensities were found to be nearly constant, regardless of the vein size, which validated the high repeatability of this scheme for identity authentication with anti-spoofing.
We present an electromagnetically driven microscanner based on a gimbal-less twist mechanism. In contrast to conventional microscanners using a gimbal-less leverage mechanism, our device utilizes a gimbal-less twist mechanism to increase the scan angle in optical applications requiring a large scanning mirror. The proposed gimbal-less scanner with twist mechanism increases the scan angle by 1.55 and 1.97 times for the slow and fast axes, respectively, under the same force; 3.64 and 1.97 times for the slow and fast axes, respectively, under the same maximum stress, compared to the gimbal-less leverage mechanism. The scanner with a 3-mm-diameter mirror and a current path composed of a single-turn coil was fabricated, and it showed the maximum scan angle of 5° (quasi-static) and 22° (resonant) for the slow and fast axes, respectively. The experimentally estimated crosstalk was as small as 0.47% and 0.97% for the fast and slow axes affected by the other axes, respectively, which was determined using a newly employed methodology based on fast Fourier transform.