Retina Scanning and biometrics!

The only part that I could not clearly understand is that WHT a user my has any objection on scanning their retinas????
In my country the criminal and security forces make use of Retina Scanning in order to check out the criminal records of each person …. This makes things easier and quicker than ever before….. but the question still pose itself, WHY a user may have an objection about retina scanning? Anyone knows?

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Arguments abound over which biometric system provides the most accurate identification, but accuracy is only one of the factors driving technology decisions. The ways and the places in which people do business affect the biometrics that businesses deploy.
First, there's the little matter of concerns over privacy that recent events have exacerbated. Then there's the perceived or real intrusiveness of the type of technology deployed, where it's deployed and who's deploying it. A person might not mind putting his hand in a reader but he might object to having his retina scanned.

Then there are straightforward technological issues. For example, voice authentication systems can be hindered by background noise, while an individual's fingerprint can be compromised by working conditions.

At Omaha-based Creighton University, for instance, a biometric pilot at the dental school revealed that fingerprint technology probably wouldn't be suitable. "Dental students get powder residue on their hands from their gloves, and they wash their hands a lot, so the devices didn't work well," says Brian Young, vice president of IT. "We had to set security thresholds so low as to make using [the systems] not feasible."

At Children's Hospital Boston, Paul Scheib, director of operations and chief information security officer, will deal with similar issues as the information systems division looks to roll out biometric access to 600 workstations to be shared by 4,000 clinicians. The hospital has explored retinal scans but is leaning toward fingerprint access so it can deploy keyboards with embedded scanners. Given that workstations are shared and are in easy-to-access locations, a peripheral biometric device that could get removed or lost wouldn't be ideal, says Scheib.

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I think it's more a perceived invasiveness and the possibility of transmittal of diseases. I'm sure the technology has improved but I remember retina scanners as being these "suction" cup things that you had to put your eye on to get a good scan. You could transmit eye diseases like pink eye by touching the "cup" with your own eye. Additionally, it's not that reliable due to issues like cateracts and such that can alter retinas. Iris scans, IMO, do far better.

There is not direct contact between your eyes and the scanner, My eyes have been scanned many times .. or what you have to do is stand right in front of a little piece of galss, open one eye and close the other one .... I have no such a big experince in this arena ... to tell which is better ... thanks for the information .... ;)

Cheers

I think both have systems have flaws. fingerprints becasue if your hurt yourself (say get burned or just even a cut or calus) it throws the scan WAY off. If I do alot of yard work or when I work out a lot and dont use my weight lifiting gloves my hands get trashed. I have burned my finger MANY times (lol I like fire and explosives). And things like dirt or powder on your hands at the time can mess up the scan not only for you but for everyone after you becasue the scanner will get dirty.

retina..ha I wear contacts...If they get a bubble or crease in them (which happens ocassionaly) then it would throw it off, or if they arent at the same angle they were in when I made the original.

Biometric devices are great way to help improve security in any organization. Every biometric system has its flaws, like it or not. But the key is to have defence in depth. Multifactor authentication is what makes biometrics a success. Biometric systems by themselves are strong, but when coupled with a password, a electronic key card, or proximity devices, makes them all the more powerful.

I welcome the growing popularity and use of biometrics. In my opinion, and many others, biometrics are a very powerfull tool, but will not be fully embraced by the everyday user for some time to come.

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Originally posted here by XTC46
I think both have systems have flaws. fingerprints becasue if your hurt yourself (say get burned or just even a cut or calus) it throws the scan WAY off. If I do alot of yard work or when I work out a lot and dont use my weight lifiting gloves my hands get trashed. I have burned my finger MANY times (lol I like fire and explosives). And things like dirt or powder on your hands at the time can mess up the scan not only for you but for everyone after you becasue the scanner will get dirty.

retina..ha I wear contacts...If they get a bubble or crease in them (which happens ocassionaly) then it would throw it off, or if they arent at the same angle they were in when I made the original.

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Thats is true .... almot all companies and organization have thrown away the fingerprints biometric system for exactly the reason you mentioned .... annd they are shiffting to another system like Voice, Retina and iris scanning system ....

As we said that every system has it own shortfalls and shortages ... like the Voice ... it doesn't work in the presence of background voice as it will badly recognize the voice ....

But are we going to witness the discovery of new biometric systems to identify our identity? I think they will find new ways more effecient and less vulnerable ..... this migth be done with our heart beats ... never know ....

Check out CCC's article on fooling finger print scanners, im not gonna post the link, but its an interesting read :-)

Ive used a retina scanner before and my eye was a good 1 - 2inchs from the actual ccd and you didnt need to actually touch anything, it was pretty call tricking it also and hearing the robot voice of the woman telling me i wasnt a valid user, after doing it 10+ times she never got cross! such a bonus on a human!

i2c

We are currently Building out a data center in my company, and we will be deploying Facial scanning for our biometeric access. I hear that the fail rate isn't as bad as retinal scanning.

I don't know if the Facial scanning can give more unique character for a person than the retinal scanning ????

I believe that biometric systems will supplant access passwords in the coming years .. at leat in the larg industries .... This will make lazy and silly employees happier as they won't be traced by the IT dep. to tell them to change thier passwords periodically .... :D

My GFs friend has diabetes. It causes the blood vessels in her retina to expand and she's had to have them lasered a few times.

Would this throw out retina scans?
With the increase in diabetes predicted it might cause a lot of problems for retina scanning.

I don't know if this would be the case, it was just a thought that occurred to me.

and if you want to wear lenses.... if you became blind ...
personnally i don't like for many reasons :

1- the bad guys will create a way around the system... how , i think by taking human parts, that will increase the crimes and killing
and few years after now, there can be making human parts from DNA (close to clonning ) then who said that ppl won't make an iris or an eye and use it... than ur eye won't be unique in the world :D :P

2- i think this gives the government lot of control over us, and ppl by nature resist someone having control over them
and not all the governments are good, lot of them are bad ones (tirany govs)

so having eye scanners in airports and all the places will give government control over us
you will never make a step without someone watching you and tracing you

there are lot of other stuff , but i think the post is long enough :D :D

I think chances are higher that somone will develop a way to create a contact lense that looks like what the retina scanner is looking for rather than killing a person for their eye, lol.

I don't think you could clone an eye. The patten of blood vessels on the retina probably wouldn't be recreated exactly the same.
Think of identical twins. Essentially identical twins are natural clones of each other but they still have different fingerprints (and I would guess retina scans). There is a certain amount of chaos in a biological system so even when you have the exact plans (DNA) you don't get exactly the same result twice.

I would be more worried about iris scanners at an ATM. Just in case a ne'er-do-well decides to pluck out your eye to get some cash.

I think the reality will be that biometrics will just become an additional factor so you'll have your cash card your pin and a biometric as well.