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Fingerprint Purchasing Technology Ensures Buyer Has a Pulse

Posted by samzenpus on from the no-zombie-shopping dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A small U.S. university has come up with a novel solution to reduce the possibility of using a dead person's hand to get past a fingerprint scanner through the use of hemoglobin detection. The device quickly checks the fingerprint and hemoglobin 'non-intrusively' to verify the identity and whether the individual is alive. This field of research is called Biocryptology and seeks to ensure that biometric security devices can't be easily bypassed."

6 of 156 comments (clear)

  1. How about O2? by Comrade+Ogilvy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Checking for oxygenation level might be possible. Does not have to be a very accurate reading.

    1. Re:How about O2? by gandhi_2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Passwords, someone complains you can just beat people with wrenches.

      Biometrics, someone complains you can just cut off a body part.

      Biometrics with life detection, someone complains the system can't detect if the persons family is being held hostage....

      --
      THL phish sticks
    2. Re:How about O2? by Nihilanth · · Score: 2, Insightful

      For the last bit, this is probably a desired feature. You'd -want- the device to be able to detect if you're under duress.

  2. Biometric Authentication is a bad idea. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Here's a good reason why: What happens when someone manages to steal your password? You change it. What happens when someone managed to recreate your DNA or other biological identifier used for authentication? Good luck getting new DNA or fingerprints.

  3. Not checking pulse by crow · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The title is wrong. This is not checking for a pulse. If it were, then people with artificial heart pumps like Dick Cheney wouldn't be able to use it. They are alive, but do not have a pulse.

    That said, I could see something like this checking for a pulse. This brings up the interesting problem of how to handle biometric checks for people who don't have those biometrics. Not everyone has fingers. Not everyone has eyes. Not everyone has a pulse. Maybe you don't care about that, as you don't have any of them among your target users, but what happens when that changes? You need a plan to handle that.

  4. Does it check to see if he has a gun to head? by boddhisatva · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This kind of stuff is good marketing. Useless, but that hasn't stopped anyone from blowing money so far.