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Posts Tagged ‘finger vein’

An Onslaught of Biometrics?

June 24, 2011 Comments off

howestreet

Yes­ter­day, I was stand­ing in a check­out line at the gro­cery store sur­rounded by the usual items — a wide selec­tion of can­dies, celebrity mag­a­zines, and diet tips. Of course, one of the mag­a­zines was adver­tis­ing a com­bi­na­tion of two themes: a celebrity diet. I’ve always found these diets incred­i­bly silly, not because the advice is nec­es­sar­ily bad, but because the whole mat­ter of eco­nomic incen­tives is left out of the equation.

Celebri­ties don’t stay in shape thanks to spe­cial tech­niques or a superb per­sonal trainer. Rather, the profit motive does most of the work. In order to con­tinue mak­ing mil­lions every year, celebri­ties must stay incred­i­bly fit. If each of our read­ers were offered a mil­lion dol­lars per year to stay in shape, we’d all see the pounds falling off rapidly. The aver­age per­son sim­ply doesn’t have the same incen­tives as actors and actresses. Most Hol­ly­wood denizens don’t stay fit because of fab­u­lous diets — they have a very pow­er­ful mon­e­tary incen­tive that keeps them on those diets. The rest of us can cheat; we don’t have a movie shoot com­ing up in a few months.

But isn’t health and a long life enough of an incen­tive? Yes and no. As a doc­tor friend of Read more…

Categories: Biometrics Tags: , , , , ,

Biometric ATM gives cash via ‘finger vein’ scan

January 10, 2011 1 comment

Poland’s cooperative BPS bank says it’s the first in Europe to install a biometric ATM — allowing customers to withdraw cash simply with the touch of a fingertip.

The digit-scanning ATM, introduced in the Polish capital of Warsaw, runs on the latest in “finger vein” technology — an authentication system developed by Japanese tech giant Hitachi.

The company says that an infrared light is passed through the finger to detect a unique pattern of micro-veins beneath the surface – which is then matched with a pre-registered profile to verify an individual’s identity.

“This is a substantially more reliable technique than using fingerprints,” Peter Jones, Hitachi’s head of security and solutions in Europe, told CNN.

“Our tests indicate there is a one in a million false acceptance rate — that’s as good as iris scanning, which is generally regarded as the most secure method.”

Unlike fingerprints, which leave a trace and can be potentially reproduced, finger veins are impossible to replicate, according to Jones, because they are beneath the surface of the skin.

“And before you ask, no — it doesn’t work with fingers that have been chopped off,” he added.

While the technology represents a step forward in reducing cases of identity fraud, Jones said that this is just one of many factors that have encouraged the Polish bank to adopt it. Read more…

Categories: Biometrics Tags: , , , ,