Fingerprint Sensors for Mobile Wallets?

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NXP Semiconductors, sensor maker AuthenTec and mobile payments firm DeviceFidelity announce their collaboration in development of wireless designs allowing "highly secure mobile payments" on Android phones. 

AuthenTecThe designs combine fingerprint biometrics with NFC technologies-- creating a system where users call up their mobile wallet applications by swiping their finger over a fingerprint sensor, before transactions are carried out via NFC. 

The first successful biometrically-enabled mobile transaction was just recently carried out in the USm via a Motorola ATRIX 4G smartphone carrying AuthenTec's AES1750 fingerprint sensor and deviceFidelity's In2Pay microSD card. 

Current NFC-based transactions via smartphones such as Google's Nexus S require the user to log in via password or PIN. 

AuthenTec says its fingerprint-baed methond should drive NFC and mobile wallet adoption, as the system is both faster and safer-- at least than regular passwords or PINs. Wheter it's also hacker-proof is still to be seen, though.

Go NXP, AuthenTec and DeviceFidelity Complete First Fingerprint-Enabled NFC Payment Transaction in US