ALBUQUERQUE, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army announced it has contracted New Mexico-based Lumidigm Inc. for continued development of whole-hand biometric sensors.

Lumidigm is a fingerprint sensors developer using multispectral imaging biometrics for identity management.

The U.S. Army’s Small Business Innovation Research program announced the Phase II $730,000 contract for the company to continue development of a multimodal whole-hand biometric sensor based on the company's multispectral imaging of the hand.

“Lumidigm’s multispectral imaging makes a whole-hand sensor technically feasible and commercially promising,” said Anil Jain, Michigan State University professor assisting with the project, in a statement. “The resulting product will be one of the most secure biometric systems available.”

Officials say the multispectral imaging relies on four biometric signals collected from hand insertion. They include fingerprints, palm prints, skin textural characteristics, and hand shape, which provide an overall matching score.

“From the beginning, we understood that multispectral imaging would play a role in biometric identification and verification that extends beyond fingerprints,” said Matthew Ennis, Lumidigm vice president of business development. “The whole-hand project represents an exciting future platform for Lumidigm.”