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Getting Fingerprint Readers to Read Your Prints?
crypticgeek asks: "I recently obtained a new job, and I'm already at my wit's end. Many of the doors in our facility have finger print readers because they are high security areas. No matter how hard I've tried, I can't get the system to read my prints very well, since they aren't well 'defined'. This means I don't have access to the areas I need to. I have to have someone else let me in to secure areas. I've tried using lotion thinking they were too dry, but that didn't work. In fact, most of the time my hands are really sweaty. Someone suggested I use nail polish remover and that would 'raise' the print, however I'm skeptical. Has anyone else had problems with finger print devices, or know of some possible ways of getting a better read?"
The FBI has a special recommended way to clean hands before getting prints. You washed your hands in soap, then rinsed in alcohol, and then air dryed, no towel.
You might have already tried this, but what about increasing the sensitivity threshold on the fingerprint reader. I know our system has the ability to increase or decrease this threshold.
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You need to watch more James Bond movies.. Everyone knows you can get a little hand-held device which reads your finger prints and then electronically displays them on a little screen which all finger print readers can read. Just get yourself one of those, have it read your prints, and then carry it around with you in your pocket! As a bonus: when you're bored at work you can go around using a print dusting kit and grab the prints of everyone else in the office, too, and snoop around in high security areas that you don't normally have access to during the night. Duh!
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try sticking Jelly Bears over your thumb and placing over the reader
works most of the time just dont look at who had access...
regards
John Jones
Sit at your desk with no work to do, buddy. Just be sure to set something in motion to get someone else who's job it is to fix these sort of problems on it.
Why should you trouble yourself if the company's assclown policies are preventing you from doing work?
Sorry, but you might just be hosed. I work for a company that does biometrics, and a few people who work for us just don't have well-enough defined prints to make the sensors read reliably. Sometimes you can help that by pressing harder or lighter. Also, some readers can be adjusted for sensitivity. The problem with cranking the sensitivity up on a public reader is that can make it *less* reliable for people with normal prints.
Are the sensors chip-based or optical? If they're chip-based, I've found that having clean fingers helps, but if I *just* washed and dried my hands, it's harder to get a good read than if I wait a minute for some sweat/oil to form on the skin again.
Have you tried taking your gloves off?
Why not "change your password" by using a different finger?
You have to have someone else let you into secure areas? This strikes me as very risky indeed - for your career that is. Among other things, the point of such systems is to audit who enters the areas, and you are circumventing it.
Get them to fix the system so it lets you in - don't put yourself at risk by breaking the rules.
It appears the loops and whorls of my fingerprints are a little lower than average - so when I first tried to use a fingerprint reader I couldn't register with the system, nevermind authenticate with it later. Then, I finally loaded up an admin utility that showed the scanned image that the recognition engine was using - and I noticed the print didn't look complete.
Solution: I put almost half of the required fingertip over the top of the imaging sensor, so the stupid little device gets the part of my print it really wants.
Anyway, it might be worth a try to play around with finger positioning.
Easy - get yourself to some local med school and barter for a finger from some leftover dissection class (there's gotta be tons of extra fingers right?). Make sure it has a nice print. Anyway, retrain your work security system on the new finger, and pop that baby around your neck on a string. If the system has one of those annoying "it has to be warm" features just stick it in your mouth for a minute before use.
Surely this is your employer's problem, not yours, given that they're the ones who've implemented a faulty security system? As it's impeding your ability to do your job, it's costing them money and so is in their best interests to fix.
This isn't an instant solution but it will probably work in the near-term. Try sanding down the pads of your finger(s). The skin will grow back thicker, i.e. it will callous, and your prints will be more distinct. I play guitar and the pads of my left fingers are about 1/16" thick. Last time I was fingerprinted (for a concealed weapon permit, if you're curious) the cop who did it told me I had the best prints he had seen in a long time.
To ensure perfect aim, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target
There's something called Ridgebuilder - it's designed to temporarily enhance fingerprnts. I'm a surgeon and typically 'cause we scrub our hands so much we have ill-defined fingerprints. Part of being medically licensed, requires us to be fingerprinted, and many of us have difficulty with this part due to the polished nature of our hands. Ridgebuulder is one of the products recommended to help us become successfully printed.
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You might be able to enter as the previous person ;).
On many fingerprint readers there's usually this glass thingy where you put your finger. Usually the oils from the previous print will be left on the glass, by breathing on it, you can often fog up the glass to create an image which can be read by the reader.
With most biometric systems you need a human or something monitoring that no funny business like this is happening.
Anyway, you should just make a distinctive mold, register it and put it on your keychain.
A big warning about the previous post.. many fingerprint scanners and touchscreens are actually damaged by alcohol, especially older ones. So unless you want to ruin it for everyone, make darn sure with the manufacturer that it won't cause damage.
There is a lot of bad advice in the thread. Some things I have found that really work
1. The number 1 cause of bad prints is dryness. Make sure your finger is moist. You can do this with lotion or simply rubbing your fingers together
2. Press firmly but don't mash your finger into it.
3. If it doesn't work after a second or two, lift it up and try it again.
4. Make sure you are covering the scanner completely. Don't just scan the tip of your finger. The more area you can cover it with the better.
5. If it still doesn't work, try scooting your finger higher up on the scanner to get the better prints towards the bottom of your pads.
6. Most setups have the option of registering a different finger. Try your middle finger or your thumb instead.
7. If a lot of people are having trouble, they probably have the match settings too high or the scanner is defective. But more than likely, it is probably you.
The sending of this message pretty much inconveniences everyone involved.
That said, here's some documentation for that claim, some of which include suggestions for how to easily bypass such systems, perhaps one of them will work for you, although I don't recommend the first one:
Malaysia car thieves steal finger
DHS and UK ID card biometric vendor in false ID lawsuit
Unsupervised biometric scanners more toys than serious security
Impact of Artificial Gummy Fingers on Fingerprint Systems
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
I've been doing biometrics related stuff for the last several years, and I can tell you that there are a *lot* of people who don't have easily-scannable fingerprints. Many people who do a lot of work with their hands basically keep their fingertips polished smooth. One colleague of mine has a grandmother who quilts a lot and the constant rubbing of fingertips against cloth erases her ridges. A national ID project in Nicaragua (IIRC) ran into lots of trouble because most of the women cook tortillas and frequently grab the hot tortillas with their fingers to flip and remove them, burning their fingerprints off in the process. People who do hard labor often have thick, cracking callouses which cause problems.
It also appears to be a bigger problem for women than for men, women seem to have naturally fainter ridges than men, and asians seem to have fainter ridges that other races. I've met lots of asian women who have basically no ridges at all.
Other people have a different problem. Most fingerprint recognition algorithms want to look at some nice whorl patterns, which is where the most identifiable splits and changes in the ridges are found, but this "central" portion is not very centered on some peoples' fingers. For some, it's closer to the fingertip or closer to the knuckle, and I even met one man who got the best readings by tilting his finger about 30 degrees to one side.
Finally lots of people have problems using fingerprint scanners because they don't know how to use them. "What's to know?" you might think. Actually, you do have to learn how to position your finger on the sensor, and how much pressure to apply. Bad positioning, or too much or too little force, will give you poor scans.
So, to find a solution (other than getting your employer to fix or get rid of the scanners), I suggest you firse see if you can figure out what the problem is. Some things to look at/try:
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