New Fujitsu Laptop Reads Your Palm, For Security

judgecorp writes "Fujitsu has launched a laptop which authenticates users using the veins of their palm. The contactless technology is hard to deceive and — since it detects haemoglobin in the veins, is not so likely to be breakable using the gruesome method of cutting off a hand."

Comments

Not for I

[binarylarry]

Damn these hairy palms!

Damn them to hell!

Re:Not for I

[sunderland56]

On the plus side: having your palm coated in a sticky gel-like substance should improve reader accuracy.

Medical Application

[mrbluze]

This means that the near-infra-red emitters and camera have become so cheap as to be mass marketable. Hold off for six or so months before buying a vein finder for medical use, you could save 90% on the price ... or maybe the next generation of smart phones will support this?

Re:Medical Application

[binarylarry]

Or... maybe we'll continue to be raped by the medical industry anyway?

Re:Medical Application

[Sqr(twg)]

The price of a medical device has very little to do with the price of components. (Compare the price of a medical hearing aid to the price of a bluetooth headset.)
It's all in certification and testing. - And insurance against lawsuits.

Reliability?

[axlash]

Not so sure how good this is. From what I can see, the equal error rate of palm identification is 0.17, compared to 0.01 for fingerprint identification.

Re:I have a better idea for a security device

[chuckugly]

Yeah I tried that "no honey, it's an ID verification device" line before too.

Biometrics are not good as a "password"

[nctritech]

You can't change your palm vein layout or your fingerprint when an attacker makes a copy of it somehow. You can easily change a password with practically no real effort. Biometrics are a key to a door where the key is unchangeable. I reinstalled everything on a laptop of mine and didn't even waste time putting a driver in place for the fingerprint reader it came with.

Better be quick...

[Krokus]

How fast can you explain to the guy about to cut off your hand that it's not going to work? Is he going to believe you?

Re:Hemoglobin? Uh. Not quite.

[Rosyna]

Cut off the hand in such a way as to keep the appendage from bleeding out (think fire-heated axe), and there's still going to be blood (and hemoglobin) in there.

Pretty sure it uses the RF properties of iron when in motion. If it does use IR, then the blood needs to be a different temperature than the skin. Cutting off the hand would cause the blood to cool too much.

Not new technology

[RedLeg]

They demo'd this at CeBIT several years ago, and were spinning it at the time for high security applications, banking, etc. It did not get much traction IIRC, not sure how successful it was in Nippon.

One of its claimed advantages was (at least what they demo'd) that it used infrared to "see" the heat of your veins through the palm of your hand. Cut the hand off, it ain't gonna work, or so they claimed.

It will be interesting to see how this is accepted in the larger notebook market.

-Red

Re:Not new technology

[ColdWetDog]

Doesn't the tin foil get uncomfortable after a while?

Noise levels.

[Firethorn]

slighly discomfort

Say what? Gunshots range from ~143-174+. Hearing damage is pretty much instant at 130db.

That means you need hearing protection, but when hunting hearing is still very useful, so 'active' hearing protection that shuts down for the gunshot but otherwise amplifies quiet signals are helpful assists.

As for the cost of hearing aides, it's my understanding that the expensive ones are much more configurable than 'simple' devices like bluetooth headsets, and are designed to last longer(with better warranty), plus often include the cost of the configuration in the cost for the device. But yeah, a lot of medical device paperwork&liability expense baked into the price.