Seiko Epson developing tiny fingerprint sensor

With all this paranoia surrounding identity theft, we've seen fingerprint sensors on everything from hard drives to door locks to laptops, but the common feature on all of those is the relative thickness of the device. By "relatively thick," we mean that these current tags would probably bulk up your wallet in a bad way should they ever be used to tag things like credit and debit cards. Seiko Epson is on top of it, however, and are developing a ridiculously thin (0.2mm) fingerprint sensor that will allow mobile devices to be easily secured by biometrics. Potential applications, aside from deterring thieves from swiping your self-authenticating credit card, are tagging cellphones, MP3 players, and essentially anything that can fit into your pocket. The sensor operates by reading the faint electric current that emanates from your fingertip and conveys your specific print pattern for verification -- if it detects somebody trying their best to mimic your phalanges, it deactivates the device, rendering it useless to the perpetrator. While there's a certain sense of security gained by having everything you own equipped with a fingerprint sensor, we can envision that sharing your tagged gadgetry with friends could become tricky, and while Seiko Epson can't quite put a finger on a release date, it's expecting 2010 before this goes full scale.

[Via Pink Tentacle]

[David @ Aug 1st 2006 12:40PM]

Seiko Epson can't quite put a finger on a release date

Ha!

[Sp-----K @ Aug 1st 2006 1:14PM]

Excellent!!! Now I can put a biometeric lock on all my porn!!! Now know one but me can use it!!!! WooHoo!!!!

[Matthew @ Aug 1st 2006 1:36PM]

I'm smelling a lot of lost fingers in the near future... the new form of identity theft

[Timmy!!! @ Aug 1st 2006 2:09PM]

hey Matthew, how do missing fingers smell?? THEY HAVE NO NOSES!!!!

[Middle America @ Aug 1st 2006 2:18PM]

So what happens when you get a scratch on that specific finger? I can invision dirt, scratches on the device and a number of other issues coming up.

Although, it will probably become a security craze in America.

[David Lazarus @ Aug 1st 2006 5:18PM]

I love the comment about biometric security on all the porn.

I can see a huge market for this on all high value gadgets. Imagine laptops; phones; ipods; PDAs; GPSs; cameras and camcorders that all come with biometric security. It would make all petty thefts pointless unless they were determined to take your fingers along with the gadget.

[Guybrush @ Aug 1st 2006 5:58PM]

Cutting off somebody's finger would not allow you to steal their stuff. This thing is scanning electromagnetic patterns which your body naturally emits... not optically scanning the finger itself. Once you cut off a finger from the body, I'm pretty sure it stops giving off those patterns.

[Zeke @ Aug 1st 2006 7:40PM]

Middle America, don't all your fingers share the same finger print? And you have two hands, right? But even if they don't, you'll probably be able to register multiple fingers.

This is kind of a let-down for all the amputees though... :'(

[Vezquex @ Aug 2nd 2006 4:25AM]

I know that Engadget has sold out since the start, but the link whoring is starting to interfere with normal reading.

[Matt @ Aug 2nd 2006 9:06AM]

Hold on; if you can tie a device to one person only then bingo! Per-user licensing! No legitimate second-hand market! Mr Gates is going to love this one...