The most realistic and likely biometric tool is a hidden sensor within a touchscreen or notebook’s trackpad that would detect fingerprints, vein patterns or even the shape of your ear when you use the phone or notebook like normal, making the whole process nearly invisible. The patent also considers face recognition using the webcam—but considering our past experience with VeriFace’s tech and iPhoto’s face recognition, that sounds kinda lousy. The “ew, creepy” solution they propose is collecting a user’s DNA to recognise their genetic makeup when they come into contact with the machine.

Oh and there’s a couple of ideas like arranging shapes or patterns that are sorta Android’s neato puzzle lock. [AppleInsider]

DHS is currently collecting human odour samples and beginning preliminary work to uncover indicators that could be used against potential criminals. Essentially, they believe that an odour may not only be unique to a particular individual, but can also a “useful indicator of certain human behaviors.” This research has a foundation in recent studies that have used gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to analyse organic compounds in human sweat. These studies have indicated that there may very well be marker compounds in human sweat that can be used to identify individuals, and that these “odour fingerprints” can change over time for as yet unknown reasons.

Naturally, civil liberties advocates (especially the smelly ones) are taking issue with this research, claiming that the department had “misplaced priorities.”

“The history of DHS’ deployment of these technologies has been one colossal failure after another,” he said. “There is no lie detector. This research has been a long, meandering journey, which has taken us down one blind alley after another.”

Personally, I would have to agree with the ACLU on this one. I’m no scientist, but I would imagine that there are too many variables like diet and scented perfumes/creams that could result in inconsistencies. It seems like less of an exact science than other biometric technologies. [UPI]

Basically, they are set to roll out these cards to government officials and then on to private citizens as a way for the authorities to to protect identities and safeguard borders—but not a single police station, border entry point, or job centre has a reader capable of extracting information from the card’s biometric chip.

It took a Cambridge University security expert to explain the obvious:

“If this capability is not there then the biometrics are, in short, a waste of time. I would have thought that the government would have tried to get the readers rolled out as soon as possible as it is only when you get serious deployments that you start to learn what can go wrong.”

The government reaction to the situation was swift and decisive:

“We have always said that we would roll out the scheme incrementally. The card will not be as useful as it could be until we have got the volumes out there. There’s no prospect in the immediate future for the government directing anybody that you have to buy those things [readers] because we would be placing a burden on these organisations. The manufacturers of the machines have also got to decide whether it is worth their while to produce them. I think that organisations will decide in time that it is better, quicker and cheaper to have them.”

Woah, wait a minute! This is going to cost money? Nobody said anything about money! [Daily Tech via CrunchGear]

“mofiria” uses a unique method where a CMOS sensor diagonally captures scattered light inside the finger veins, making a plane layout possible. As a result, a small and more flexible design can be realised in building this technology into mobile devices.

The vein pattern is extracted from the captured finger vein image, and data from the pattern is compressed into the size of one-tenth to store in memory, which makes it possible for the data to be stored on a mobile device. Sony’s unique algorithm achieves fast and easy operation. The vein pattern is quickly and accurately extracted from the captured finger vein image without a fixed finger position, as the position of a placed finger is automatically and simultaneously corrected. As a result, the authentication accuracy is less than 0.1% for the FRR (False Rejection Rate), less than 0.0001% for the FAR (False Acceptance Rate), and processing time for identification takes only about 0.015 sec*1 using a personal computer CPU and about 0.25 sec*2 when using a mobile phone CPU.

Sony plans to promote the “mofiria” technology for use in mobile devices, gateway security systems and solution services. Sony will aim for commercialising this technology within the 2009 fiscal year.

I don’t know about you, but that crazy looking finger in the illustration makes this technology sort of frightening to me. [Sony and Slashphone]

It happened at Tokyo airport. The woman has repeatedly entered Japan using the same trick without anybody noticing. Japanese officials say that they suspect many others have been doing the same things, demonstrating that the biometric systems they installed in 30 airports in 2007–to the tune of $US45 million–are completely useless. The woman was deported in July 2007 for illegally staying in Japan as a bar hostess in Nagano, but she entered again with the system, using the tape and a fake passport allegedly provided by a South Korean broker. [Sydney Morning Herald via Fashion Funky]

That seems far more convenient than carrying around a key or remembering a passcode, but couldn’t you just take the whole thing with you and smash it open later on? I mean, it only weighs 4.5 kilos. It’s more like a high-tech deterrent when you think about it. Plus, the damn thing is $US579—so if you buy it you have already been robbed. [RCG Store via Everything USB]

In addition to the hefty $US15,000 price tag, this door boasts a biometric sensor that serves as the lock. Oh, and lots of carbon fibre. Did we mention it’s made of carbon fibre? There was, sadly, no word on what this door was protecting. An underground secret lair, perhaps?

Anyway, we sincerely hope the wealthy Brazilian businessman who commissioned this piece gets his money’s worth, because this sucker would do nicely as the door to the next Gizmodo Gallery, don’t you think? [Carbon Fibre Gear]

Personally, I don’t think that standardised tests are really worth a damn when it comes to admissions, so all of the fuss surrounding it seems pretty silly to me. At most, it should be weighted on the very tail end of a student’s accomplishments. Still, if dropping US$250 on the GMATs is in your future, palm-vein scanning will begin next month in Korea and India, with US centres starting around the fall. A world-wide rollout is expected by May. [WSJ]

To be honest, I don’t think the world really needs a Bluetooth headset, heart rate monitor combo–but a modified S9 that would allow users to increase volume, change tracks or answer calls with touch sensitive panels seems promising. However, like any other patent application, there is no guarantee either of these products will ever see the light of day. [Cellpassion]

This is a good thing, because Sagawa Advance’s scanner is used as access to high-security areas such as power plants and medical factories where they’ve got to make sure that it’s really the plant supervisor entering and not his evil twin bent on the destruction of the human race. That’s always the worst. [Digital World Tokyo]