The Vkansee fingerprint scanner quadruples Touch ID's pixel count (pictures)

Fingerprint sensors are becoming more and more common as a security feature in smartphones. However, according to fingerprint sensor startup Vkansee, the technology has room for improvement.

With most current sensors scanning fingerprints in 500ppi, Vkansee says that there are ways to "spoof" the technology using some remarkably low-fi methods.

Vkansee's sensor is just 1.5mm thin but scans at 2,000ppi, around four times that of most competitiors.

This allows for over 150 data points, but more importantly, it allows for the sensor to detect the presence of sweat pores -- making it even harder to fool the system.

Vkansee even notes -- apologies to any squeamish readers -- that sweat pores close when a finger is amputated, eliminating that particularly gruesome method of bypassing security.

The sensor is small enough that it can be integrated into the design of most tablets and smartphones. The sensor comes in two sizes and three LED colours.

Vkansee uses just 0.1mW of power and has a patent-pending feature that auto-awakens the sensor when swiped. Fingers can be scanned even when dirty.

Since showing off Vkansee at CES 2015, the company has refined the sensor and it can now work with damp or even wet fingerprints as well.

Vkansee picked up $7 million in funding at the end of 2014. Security-minded individuals will be relieved to know that no fingerprint images are stored by the system either -- they are instantly encoded as "secure, encrypted templates" instead. Read more!