Sony taps veins for better biometrics
Blood vessel layouts scanned
Sony has unveiled the next step in biometric security: a camera-based system that analyses veins in your fingers.
Sony's Mofiria tech: analyses vein layouts
The user first lays one side of their index finger down on a small pad, after which a series of LEDs shine infrared light onto it. A CMOS sensor sat on the other side of the finger then picks up light scattered off of the veins inside the user’s finger.
An algorithm uses this information to build up a picture of the user’s vein layout. Sony claims that, much like a fingerprint, a person’s vein arrangement is unique and that it doesn’t ever change.
The whole identification process takes less than one second, but it’s unclear if the technology – called Mofiria – can detect if blood’s still pumping through a finger’s veins. So mafia dons needn’t worry yet.
Mofiria could well prove useful as a security system for mobile devices, such as phones, Sony said. It expects to commercialise Mofiria throughout 2009. ®
COMMENTS
@ AC above
There hasn't been a biometric technology ever released where the inventors thought about who *couldn't* use it. The industry measures biometrics, at least in part, by the Failure to Enrol Rate (FTER) - that is, the percentage of people who could not put the biometric (whichever it is) on the system. However, they NEVER include people who do not have whatever bit of body is needed (finger, eye, whatever) - this is the "outlier" population, members of which are referred to as "goats". The FTER only includes those who *have* the relevant bit, but couldn't enrol ...
... Oh, and then governments buy them for major rights-affecting applications like ID cards and passports without realising (or caring) that they haven't been tested on people that have no way of using them.
How would this work for people with poor blood flow?
Several physical infirmities could affect this technology. Low blood flow to extremities may affect how this technology works. Does anyone know if this was considered when developing this technology?
V/R
higgido
