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Your Skin Is Your Password

Posted by timothy on from the better-than-a-bar-code dept.

An anonymous reader writes: "Technology Review is running a story outlining a process which uses light to uniquely identify a person through their skin. The light reflects through a person's skin and is uniquely reflected back to a receiver. The researchers believe that this has some major applications including improving hand gun saftey locks and preventing cellular phone theft."

3 of 32 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I have this giant wart on my finger by liquidice5 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I agree

    what about the handgun thing
    what if you are being attacked and your gun wont recognize you because you are sweating profusely??

    What about dirty hands?

    I believe that biometric systems will not be completely accurate until they use DNA from blood
    (like in Gattaca) (but, then also like in Gattaca, they can be fooled)

    but then there is privacy issues and things like that.

    --

    Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody is looking - H.L. Mencken
  2. Re:Phone theft by rtaylor · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Its cold here. Some of us wear gloves.

    This isn't going to work very well.

    --
    Rod Taylor
  3. Re:I have this giant wart on my finger by glock22 · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Uncle Mike's makes a holster for police which requires finger print verification before releasing the handgun from the holster. Strangely, I can't find that product on their Law Enforcement Holster page. [shrug] The product brochure/catalog I read (and this random site, description halfway down the page) both claim that it takes about a second for the system to work. That's one second just to start clearing the holster, then you have to bring it to bear.

    One training center claims that they can train you to draw and fire two good shots in 1.5 seconds, and a man who used to run the sheriff's armory told me that he would train deputies to draw and fire from a standard police holster in 1.65 seconds.

    Now add one full second to those times. Then think about how far you can run in 2-3 seconds. That aggresive man with a knife is now much closer to our police officer than he would have been otherwise. In the case of firearms we must remember that speed is going to be an issue. If it's not fast, I don't want it. Make it fast, and I'll look at it.