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Vein Patterns Could Replace Fingerprints
Death Metal writes "Companies in Europe have begun to roll out an advanced biometric system from Japan that identifies people from the unique patterns of veins inside their fingers. Finger vein authentication, introduced widely by Japanese banks in the last two years, is claimed to be the fastest and most secure biometric method. Developed by Hitachi, it verifies a person's identity based on the lattice work of minute blood vessels under the skin."
Funny you should say that, my first thought when I read "Finger vein authentication, introduced widely by Japanese banks in the last two years" was that it's got to be a bitch to withdraw cash from an ATM if you're a Yakusa...
Maybe its me being pedantic, but I consider biometrics something that is intended to replace typing in a username, as opposed to being both pairs of the username/password combo. Ideally, one would have biometrics to ID which user is wanting access, then have a contactless smart card and/or a PIN for the "password" part that confirms the user is whom he or she said they are.
Until someone figures out how to revoke and replace biometric properties in case of fraud, I don't see why we should even be considering them as a serious replacement for good old passports.
An evaluation by the National Physical Laboratory in the UK found vein patterns to be the least reliable biometric they'd ever encountered, worse even than face recognition which became notorious for its zero-percent hit rate in several public trials (OK, so you can't get worse than zero percent, but in carefully controlled lab trials face recognition did get a non-zero score).
Looks like another great example of biometric vendor marketing at work. "Buy our stuff, it's gooder than anyone else's!".
I don't think anyone would appreciate you flopping your left nut out on the scanner. Oh wait, you said "big". Sorry Anonymous Coward I had you all wrong.
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
That is incredibly difficult. you'd need to hook up each individual vein and artery (with the flow going in the correct direction) and get the pressure spot on else you'll either damage the veins or just fill up the finger like a balloon.
I think the old gun-in-the-head-goddamn-put-your-finger-there-or-I'll-kill-you works better.
Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.
Robot voice: "Hello, mister... JOHN SMITH. You forgot to pay your... UNIVERSITY BILL. You'll be expelled in... THREE DAYS. Also, you have... BLOOD CANCER. You'll die in... SIX WEEKS."
Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.
FTA:
The gruesome possibility that criminals may hack off a finger has already been discounted by Hitachi's scientists. Asked if authentication could be "forged" with a severed finger, the company says: "As blood would flow out of a disconnected finger, authentication would no longer be possible."
I must admit that was the first thing I thought of when I saw the headline...
...getting sick of the endless ways to identify and tag individuals that have appeared recently? Fingerprints, iris scans, voice recognition, face regonition, smell (!) , walking gait, now vein patterns. How long before we're all just barcoded with a unique id??
I'm sure some people will say I'm just being paranoid but with the advancement of AI image processing it won't be long before we can be identified no matter where we are , what the time is , or what we're doing. Yes , the governments all roll out the "terrorism" line whenever questioned about this but we've all seen how its been abused already.
So whats next - infra red heat pattern signatures of individuals? Chemical piss analysis in public toilets?
Haha, this is why I love Slashdot.
The ease that is assumed about the possibility of getting a real lightsaber. :D
I LOVE IT
This is the sig that says NI (again)
Plus, as an MD, I have quite some suspicion about the stability of some biometric methods over time or over pathologies.
Take today's method :
- it relies on vein patterns.
The main problem I see is that veins are biomechanically elastic, in order to be able to comply with varying amount of blood. It works as a "blood pool".
Depending on pathologies, the shape of the veinous network can change dramatically.
(same goes for retina. I mean looking at the change induced is the way to assess the progress of some disease like diabetes or hypertension).
Fingerprint worked so-so because the relatively stable : as long as the deeper structures aren't destroyed, the skin regrows with the same prints, no matter what.
Fucking up fingerprints require deep mutilation of fingers. These kind of accident can happen is heavy industrial workers, but its not something the average laptop wielding geek is very likely to experience. Thus fingerprints are good enough.
Whereas, the current trend of blood-related biometric systems are affect by pathologie (I've mentionned hypertension and diabetes) which are much more frequent, specially among the sedentary people: typically the users of such systems.
Thus, I have real doubts about the long term feasibility of such measures.
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