All in your hand: Chinese internet giant Tencent announces global expansion plans for palm scan technology

Dr Sim explained that veins, or “vascular biometrics” in technical terms, are highly accurate and difficult to spoof. “It can distinguish between identical twins, which would fool most facial recognition systems,” he said.

He added that acquiring a palm vein image is also contactless, making it “more hygienic compared to contact-based biometrics like fingerprints.” He noted that “contactless means you don’t have to clean the surface as often.”

Dr Kong mentioned that this technology helps reduce the risk of identity theft from online presence. “In general, it is hard to get a clear palm image without user cooperation. Except for some celebrities, most people do not have palm images online.”

However, Dr Sim cautioned that one downside of scanning vein information is that “it reveals medical conditions, such as oxygenation levels, pregnancy, and stress levels”.

OVERCOMING CHALLENGES

Palm scans can be utilised for payments, attendance tracking, and health records management. However, some of these applications may be more challenging to implement than others.

In various international markets, local laws and regulations concerning data privacy and security must be considered. 

In response, Tencent Cloud stated that they will adhere to the domestic laws and regulations of each host country. “We don’t have any data transfer back to our data centres, because we have built local data centres and servers in their respective regions,” said Mr Eric Li, Deputy General Manager and Global Chief Architect of Tencent Cloud AI.

In a bid to better serve the growing ecosystem of global partners and clients, Tencent Cloud has also established a global network of nine technical support centres across Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, the USA, and Germany, all of which will be providing round-the-clock technical service and support.