Fujitsu has announced that it has developed a new palm vein scanning system that could be applied to tablets.

In a statement announcing the technology, Fujitsu called it a “slide-style” scanning system. While it isn’t quite the same as swipe-based fingerprint scanning, the system does break a user’s palm vein pattern into slices, each of which can be authenticated as the palm passes over a small optical sensor. And at only eight millimeters wide, the sensor could be embedded along the bezel of a given tablet.

Fujitsu says it’s aiming for a “practical implementation” of the system during the 2017 fiscal year. It could face a competitive market; with fingerprint sensors now commonplace mobile device features, there are signs that iris scanning might become the next big biometric modality, which raises the question of whether OEMs will want to invest the resources into a palm vein scanning system as well. But it’s too early to say which modality will win out even if they do end up competing against each other, and it’s worth noting that Fujitsu’s palm vein system offers a high level of accuracy and liveness detection based on the need for blood flow in the user’s veins, so it’s a strong modality on its merits, especially in deployments where security is paramount.

(Originally posted on FindBiometrics)