Norwegian startup Zwipe is marketing a new passive Near Field Communication (NFC) RFID access-control card that incorporates a fingerprint scanner to authenticate an individual before the card responds to an RFID reader.

Initially, the company has signed contracts with two access-control technology distributors—one in the United States and the other in Europe—both of which have asked to remain unnamed. Commercial release of the card, known as Zwipe Access, follows two pilots in Oslo—one conducted at Telemark University College (TUC), and the other at law firm Simonsen Vogt Wiig —says Kim Kristian Humborstad, Zwipe’s CEO and cofounder.

The card is also being tested by several other small Norwegian companies, he says. At Simonsen Vogt Wiig, the Zwipe technology is being used by the law firm’s Stanley Security Solutions NFC-based access-control system. At TUC, as well as for several other pilots, Zwipe is providing a Salto Systems X4 door controller with a built-in RFID reader that supports cards made with NXP Semiconductors’ Mifare DESFire EV1 chip.

Zwipe Access was first conceived by Humborstad and a fellow student at TUC’s school of innovation and entrepreneurship, Humborstad explains. Initially, he says, the team was focused on creating secure identification solutions that could authenticate an individual without intruding upon the user’s privacy.

They were interested in how technology could be employed at grocery or convenience stores, for example, to prove a customer buying liquor or other controlled products was who he said he was. […]