THE FIRST touchscreen to recognise you by your fingerprints could usher in a new way of interacting securely with computers in public places.
"Displays cannot scan fingerprints and fingerprint sensors cannot display images. What we have invented does both. No one has done this before," says Christian Holz of the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany.
Holz and colleague Patrick Baudisch built the screen to overcome a major drawback with current displays: they emit light but cannot sense it. This flaw makes it impossible for the screen itself to recognise a user via their fingerprint, unless a separate sensor is set up beside the screen.
The researchers created their prototype using a glass screen comprised entirely of millions of 3-millimetre-long optical fibres bundled together vertically into a single flat platter. Each fibre pipes out rays of visible light from an image projector mounted below the glass. Meanwhile, infrared light from a source adjacent to the projector bounces off the fingerprints and back down to an infrared camera.
Early tests have been encouraging, Holz says, with fingerprint recognition accuracy "up to FBI standards". They are now working on a touchscreen that won't need a projector. The researchers envision people in coffee shops being able to do a little work or browse the internet on large, sharable, interactive table-tops instead of having to bring in a laptop or tablet computer. Or customers at a bank could pass secure e-documents across a table and discuss them with a clerk.
Simon Sugar, CEO of Amscreen based in Bolton, UK, is applying a different biometric technology to screens – face recognition. His firm runs a network of 6000 advertising screens in UK shops and garages. The new tech recognises gender and age and serves up a relevant ad to whoever is in front of the screen.
"In coffee shops this fingerprint system might find a role because people hang around much longer than they do in front of an advertising screen," says Sugar. But he warns that the possibility of storing users' fingerprint data means that privacy issues will have to be addressed before the screen hits the market.
This article appeared in print under the headline "Biometric touchscreen gets to grips with your prints"
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