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Driver's Licenses with Digital Watermarks

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the stuck-with-near-beer dept.

ForceQuit writes "MIT Technology Review reports that Minnesota will begin issuing a unique driver's license designed to combat counterfeiting. It includes a reflective image (of a loon) that appears to float above and below the card when the license is tilted. It also includes an invisible, digital watermark capable of carrying security data such as date of birth. The information would be readable only through a computerized scanner, which law enforcement officers could carry."

8 of 373 comments (clear)

  1. Loons by seanadams.com · · Score: 3, Funny


    The floating images will be of loons, an enduring symbol of the state.

    I thought that was California?!?!

    1. Re:Loons by stupidfoo · · Score: 2, Funny

      Try visiting uptown in Minneapolis. Plenty of loons here too.

  2. You're Confused by cflorio · · Score: 3, Funny

    The picture of the Loon is actually your photo!

  3. subject by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
    The information would be readable only through a computerized scanner, which law enforcement officers could carry.


    Why, are the scanners really that heavy?
  4. overkill by TedCheshireAcad · · Score: 2, Funny

    All this to keep terrorists from attacking us. And by 'keep terrorists from attacking us', I mean 'keep underage kids from buying beer'.

  5. Re:Great Move, With a Caveat by Bastian · · Score: 1, Funny

    I don't know what Minnesota's illegal immigrant problem is

    Mostly it's people from Wiconsin crossing the river in makeshift rafts in search of lower taxes.

  6. In other gov't cost-efficiency news... by Jonboy+X · · Score: 3, Funny

    The US Federal Reserve has just announced a new space-age digital holographic RFID watermarking scheme to prevent currency counterfeiting. The technology will be used exclusively on US $1 bills (the most frequently counterfeited), and cost approximately $35 per bill to implement.

    --

    "In a 32-bit world, you're a 2-bit user. You've got your own newsgroup, alt.total.loser." -Weird Al
  7. Re:Driver's license security by Hal_Porter · · Score: 3, Funny

    My company wants to combat this by putting chips in your head.

    www.patriot-tags.com

    The civil liberties people complain, but only _before_ the implantation, they're a docile as lambs after it. Sometimes they get in trouble, robbing banks to raise money to invest in us, but the tech support guys are working on that.

    We've just got a $1B contract from the Chinese, and donated the cash to the Republican party, so we have pretty high hopes in the American market too.

    Anyhow, need go, just got that one pesky lone guy trying to screw things up.

    --
    echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;