Citizen Fingerprint Scanner Works from 20 Feet Away

Fingerprinting used to be an affair involving ink and paper and making actual prints. Now there's a new camera that can take pictures of your fingerprints from 20 feet away whether you want it to or not. Researchers are exploring better designs in biometrics to meet business and government demands for reliable identification and verification tools. Fingerprinting continues to be an accepted technique. Fingerprint-matching has been a mainstay in law enforcement but businesses now look toward fingerprinting systems for security management and access control.

A new startup, IDair, wants to make the difference. Its new fingerprint  scanner system (AIRprint) can read fingerprints from up to 20 feet away.

The person waves hand to sensor for identification verification--no stops at checkpoints asking for a ID card; no fumbling around for lost keycards. The machine is described as a touchless scanner. The fingerprint can be photographically captured with enough detail to match against a database. A selling point is that fingerprints are collected at a standoff distance so there is no need for people to touch a scanner pad, avoiding problems in accuracy.

The scenario is simple, in that the company places the scanner device on the door; the person sends prints to the system, which takes a snapshot when triggered and uses pattern recognition, edge detection and sharpening to scan the fingerprint, which is then compared to the database. The system is described as close to the way satellites process ground images. Additional layers of security like facial recognition can be piled on to make up a more robust, complete biometric profile of a person that provides that individual with access without the need for a key or passcode.

One potential use for this is commercial: an AIRprint system could be set up in a store, and instead of having to carry around a credit card or checkbook, you could just literally wave your hand in the air to identify yourself and pay for stuff. Wouldn't that be convient?

The other obvious use for AIRprint is for identifying people from a distance covertly. Heck, someone could have already scanned your fingers and you'd never know. There could be ways to fight the technology, although it's probably inevitable that if AIRprint proves to be a popular tool with law enforcement, it'll become illegal to wear gloves or walk around with your hands in your pockets. Would you have a problem with that? You don't have something to hide, do you? Well just think about it...