And, now the project has reached the next important milestone. So far I have the following building blocks:

• I have built a prototype board for the authenticator device.
• The fingerprint scanner was connected and the fingerprint image was acquired.
• Security chip was connected and communicated.

That means now it’s time to build everything together on a single PCB and start moving towards the autonomous authenticator device.

The new PCB was designed and ordered. It’s slightly smaller than the previous one but features basically the same set of components.

I have skipped voltage regulator for now since I want to experiment with different ones on separate board. Connector to the UART fingerprint scanner was replaced with the connector to the FPC1020AM which was placed to the other side of the board.

To display different states of user interaction I have soldered three LEDs - red, blue and green. Blue one should be used to display different states of user interaction while red and green should display error and notification messages.

The board features mounting holes so I started to think about putting it into a decent case. Meanwhile, the spare PCB placed with brass spacers provides a general look and feel of the future device.

It’s not a huge step, really, but just a compilation of what I already had. Nevertheless, now all the small pieces work together as one device and the device started to get a shape. I can hold it in my hand, I can confirm authentication request with my finger and it makes me absolutely happy how it goes. Yes, I think now it’s time to give the project a name.

Last summer, when I just started to think about making own FIDO2 Authenticator I came with the name for the project - “URU Auth”. “URU” is an abbreviation which reads as “You Are You” and I think this name fits quite well for the authentication device.

What is the next challenge then? Now it’s time to experiment with the power source to make it really autonomous while keeping small and lightweight. And, still, I have to process and recognise fingerprint image.