Overheard: Biometric verification, the Lunch Lady, and Big Momma

Margaret Rouse — Thu, 15 May 2008 13:26:27 +0000

“Never again will a student hold up a lunch line to search for his/her ID card, fear peer pressure for being on a Free or Reduced meal plan, or have someone else charge a meal on their account.”

Advertisement for Sagem Morpho biometric scanner

Parents and educators concerned about the childhood obesity epidemic now have a new
ally that’s helping them apply tough love in the school cafeteria: fingerprint biometric
readers linked to point-of-sale (POS) systems and home internet connections that help them
monitor and restrict kids’ unhealthy lunch purchases.

Ok, this is kind of creepy. I can picture parent’s I’ve known really doing this. What’s next? Video monitors so you can check from work and make sure your kid isn’t trading with someone else? It’ll be interesting to see how this next generation figures out how to set parental boundries.

Overheard: Finger vein ID

Margaret Rouse — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:51:15 +0000

Both finger prints and iris patterns can be more prone to copying by a third person. But finger veins are not directly visible to a third person, which makes them more suitable for security use.

Hitachi spokesman Atsushi Konno, as quoted in Vein recognition touted for ID systems

I wonder if the finger has to be attached to a live person for this technology to work? That makes it even MORE suitable.

Overheard in the tech blogosphere » biometric verification

Overheard: Biometric verification, the Lunch Lady, and Big Momma

Overheard: Finger vein ID