Sagem Morpho shows smart contactless CHIUD reader

Tacoma, Washington-based Sagem Morpho is showing its MorphoAccess120 W PIV smart terminal (or MA120 W). The company says that it is the first biometric smart card reader which passes the GSA approved product requirements for the FIPS 201 Contactless CHUID Reader category (CHUID stands for Card Holder Unique Identifier). The product features an FBI-approved biometric optical sensor and a contactless smart card reader capable of reading and processing the entire CHUID. The MA120 W parses and verifies the integrity of the CHUID data elements, validates that they have been digitally signed by an authorized source, and determines the card’s expiration date.

Federal agencies face a difficult task in implementing the FIPS 201 (PIV) requirements on a limited budget, so a phased implementation approach using smart terminals which allow them to keep their legacy PACS (Physical Access Control System) would help. James Conniff, director of Access Control Solutions at Sagem Morpho, explains:

[the MA120 W] wraps an intelligent authentication layer around the legacy PACS, making it compliant with FIPS 201. The bridge, acting as a translator, takes the 200+ bit CHUID that has been processed and verified by the smart terminal and transforms it into the corresponding wiegand signal acceptable to the legacy PACS.

-read more at Sagem Morpho Web site; for list of GSA approved products see agency Web site