!8: Iris Scanners Ideas: October 2011

!±8± Fingerprint Safe

Say goodbye to lock and keys, passwords and access cards. Welcome fingers! Fingerprint safes allow access control to the fingertips that are recognized by the safe's system - all thanks to biometric technology! Biometric scanning involves matching a fingerprint, iris or face with a hi-tech scanner. When the rightful owner scans his/her fingerprint, the biometric reader stores a digitized template which will be used to recognize the owner in the future and allow access. Fingerprint safes are highly recognized for their security as each fingerprint is almost entirely unique

Most fingerprint safes are used for provided controlled access to weapons, ammunitions, jewelry and critical documents. All fingerprint safes typically have the following features:

o    Registration of the fingerprints that can access and deletion of the same.
o    Emergency lock or door open function.
o    Power alarms if the battery is going to run out.
o    Allows storage of 8-100 and even more authorized fingerprints.
o    Retention of authorized fingerprints during events like power failure or battery drain

Fingerprint safes eliminate hassles like writing down passwords in a piece of paper only to lose them or the paper falling in wrong hands. Where human memory fails, the touch of a finger never fails! Also, most fingerprint safes are user-friendly devices. And since fingerprints are unique to the individual, they are certainly difficult to forge or replicate.

However, as in any technology, there are both optimists and skeptics. Critics claim that fingerprint safe isn't Fort Knox! One can mould a real finger using gelatin or gummy bears or reproduce a print left on a glass. And the how-to-do manuals are to some extent accessible by watching the tele-series, "CSI". Some state that fingerprint safes cannot be really safe as removing the authorized finger and using it for access is possible. Optimists claim that there are anti-spoofing technologies that can easily make out if the fingerprint was not cut off or cloned.

There are also a section of people who are concerned about the privacy issues related to fingerprint safes, especially in relation to the storage and handling of the digitized templates acquired by these biometric systems. If any unauthorized person gets his hands, great harm can be done. A skeptic stated that losing a fingerprint or a fingerprint being forged has greater risks than losing one's Social Security Number. After all, the Social Security Number can be changed but a fingerprint cannot.

People who support biometric technology beg to demur. Their claim is that the data stored in the devices are not replications of the body parts but complex algorithms corresponding to unique features on a person's fingertips, hands or face.