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Fingerprint Purchasing Technology Ensures Buyer Has a Pulse

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."

10 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....

  2. IANAL by masao · · Score: 5, Funny

    How will lawyers use it?

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

    1. Re:Not checking pulse by CanHasDIY · · Score: 5, Funny

      ...people... like Dick Cheney... are alive...

      That seems debatable.

      --
      An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
  5. Almost worthless by codepigeon · · Score: 3, Informative

    I actually read the article; what a useless waste of a web page.

    There is only one paragraph that mentions anything about the technology, and that is the paragraph in the summary here.
    The rest reads like filler material and pimping the advantages of investing/working in the upper midwest.

    Lame. I was hoping for more details.

  6. 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.

  7. yeah, right by cellocgw · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Show me a biometric test that can't be spoofed for 10% the cost of the test hardware. Go ahead, I dare ya.
    Fake retinas and fake fingerprints took, what, a couple weeks to show up after their respective scanners went into production? Why should any other sort of bio-scanner/detector be any different?

    --
    https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
  8. Re:Gun to the Head by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    If someone's using a severed hand to pay for gas, I think your gas station might have bigger problems.