Meet PiFinger – World’s First Fingerprint HAT for Raspberry Pi

SB Components, the company behind several ambitious, Raspberry Pi-based products like PiTalk phone, LapPi laptop, and PiArm robotic arm, has weighed in with the world’s first fingerprint HAT for Raspberry Pi, called PiFinger.

PiFinger has a structure that is designed with powerful peripherals to provide stable performance. It is programmed to compare and register up to 24 fingerprints, as well as recognize algorithms for fingerprint comparison. The HAT features a powerful 2D capacitive fingerprint area sensor with a hardened surface that can detect and measure anything that is conductive or has a dielectric. The sensor has an active scanning area of 8.8 mm x 8.8 mm with a 176 x 176 pixels and 408 dpi spatial resolution. The sensor also has an enhanced ESD immunity of + / – 15kV, and a low-power consumption rate in both normal and standby modes. Other specifications include 8-bit pixel value / 256 gray levels, high-speed SPI interface, 1:1 image ratio of length to width, and up to 2 megapixels per second image capture speed.

Despite its really low power consumption (supplied with 3.3V and 5V), the PiFinger is a very powerful device with high efficiency. PiFinger incorporates onboard Nuvoton MCU with an on-chip crypto-accelerator, Cortex-M23 TrustZone and XOM memory protection security technologies which makes it powerful to perform its task efficiently. The device also has other features including a reset button, an 0.91″ OLED display for displaying messages like “Access Granted” or “Access Denied”, 40-pin GPIO header, and three LEDs. The HAT is also touted for its wide temperature range and robust coating material.

PiFinger can be connected directly via USB to PC as a biometric security device or controlled by the MCU/processor over a serial UART interface. If you want to use and control it with RPi or PC application then you need to connect it to the PC first by a USB for UART.

PiFinger is small in size and compatible with all variants of Raspberry Pi. It can be used for a couple of tasks like attendance management system, door authentication, Lock/Unlock Raspberry Pi, etc.

PiFinger is available for order on Kickstarter through December 24th starting at $60, and will ship in February next year. There’s however a $100 package of the PiFinger that bundles an RPi 4 with 2GB RAM, another package that bundles the HAT with a 5-inch, HDMI connected screen for $107, and a fourth package that has both a RPi 4 and a display for $134.

Further details on the open-source device may be found on the PiFinger Kickstarter page.

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