News

naturaSign Pad Color – The CeBit 2009 novelty of StepOver GmbH

The first High Colour (64k colours) signature pad with large VGA TFT screen, AES 256 bit encrypted transmission and internal signature generation unit (RSA 2048 bit) in the world has been presented at the StepOver GmbH exhibition stand of the CeBit Trade Fair (hall 3, stand 29).

External features
Due to the big colour screen, the naturaSign Color Pad is considerably larger than the naturaSign Pad standard, which, at the moment, is the best-selling signature pad "Made in Germany". However, the similarities of both related products are clear. Like with the naturaSign Pad standard, the signature recording screen is asymmetrically displaced and therefore both left- and right-handed people can sign with hand support, reaching close-to-paper signing conditions. A further characteristic is the extremely flat design: the maximum thickness is only 1.1 cm (0.4 in), which makes it by far the thinnest signature pad with a colour screen in the world. Thanks to the ergonomic shape and modern design, the naturaSign Color Pad is not only suitable for stationary use at points of sale, but also in mobile external services, which represent another new area for colour screen signature pads.

Areas of use
Based on a large colour screen with 640x480 pixels, the naturaSign Color is highly suitable for stationary use, especially when the signer in the typical counter situation cannot watch the computer monitor in front of him and, therefore, the relevant text on the signature pad screen needs to be offered to him. In the rest position, the user can use the large screen e.g. for slide shows, with pop-ups in high-quality colour (64,000 colours). Since the naturaSign Color Pad contains an extensive internal memory, the computer is not used by the slide show. On the other hand, in demanding external services the large screen can be automatically switched off in case of inactivity, not charging the mobile computer battery as in the case of small signature pads with LCD screen. An additional power supply is not required for the USB model of the naturaSign Color.

Internal values
In contrast to many other graphics tablets and pen pads, the naturaSign Pad Color runs on a powerful 32 bit processor from the ARM 7 series. This computing power not only enables an enormous recording speed of 500 4D coordinates per second, which is decisive for the quality of real-time acquisition, but also the real-time encryption with AES 256 bit. Another unique feature is the internal pad signature generation unit, working with secure asymmetric RSA keys of 2048 bit length, as well as the internal real-time clock.

More on security
Security is top priority for the StepOver developers and this can also be observed in the naturaSign Color firmware. “Although we could surely have installed a Linux operating system on the naturaSign Color Pad, based on the efficiency of the hardware platform, for security reasons we preferred the native system variant with our SO-OS”, states Andreas Günther, CTO (Chief Technology Officer) of StepOver GmbH. SO-OS is the real-time operating system developed in-house by StepOver, which was already used on the naturaSign Pad standard and is now also installed on the naturaSign Pad Color. However, in order to meet the naturaSign Color requirements, the system has been extended with many graphical elements. In the future, other innovations of SO-OS version 2, such as the RSA encryption components, should also be implemented for the smaller model naturaSign Pad standard, which is also equipped with a 32 bit processor from the ARM series. Andreas Günther’s opinion on this:

“The platform strategy of StepOver clearly pays off! Thanks to our uniform processor environment and system software, security flaws during the new developments are avoided and at the same time new functionalities can be smoothly integrated into existing products.”

Availability and prices
It is expected that the new naturaSign Color Pad will be launched within the second quarter of 2009. Its market price and the number of possible product variants are not known yet. However, Chief Financial officer (CFO) Olaf Staudt was adamant:
“StepOver GmbH has always offered its products with the highest quality at competitive prices, the natureSign Pad Color will not change this strategy at all!”