1999 - The First Prototypes

After the first fingerprint demonstrator has caused quite a stir at CeBIT 98, only one year later Siemens presented the first fully functional prototypes of different applications at its CeBIT 99 innovation booth. Among these were an extended cellphone (Siemens SL10) and an authentication token using smartcard format. This has become possible by the development of a DSP module which performed the complete fingerprint recognition at low power consumption and minimum size. This module later on became the basis for the TopSec ID Module and the fingerprint control within Audi's A8. Project manager at Siemens was Dr. Manfred Bromba.