Although my twin and I are identical (except for brains) our fingerprints are completely different - like everyone else it is unique. If credit cards were replaced by finger/fingers scanners and logged into a central computer to prove who you are - instead of signing a signature and number recognition - which can be copied with a stolen card.
"how would this work on the internet" I hear you all shouting..... well, before buying anything you would be required to scan in your fingerprint along with all your details, once set up, you would never have to fill in long forms for your name and address and card number etc. your print would be held at a central computer. When you want to buy anything - just press your finger on the screen in the "Finger print" activate box, no need to do anything else.
Want to bid on ebay, just press the screen and away you go.-- gizmo, May 07 2002 are you sure your fingerprints are *completely* different? if memory serves me, identical twins have fingerprints that are very similar in general pattern (more so than two unrelated people) and differ in small details. hehe but who am i to argue with the source? i would think that fingerprints could be easily lifted off a number of publicly accessible items. once the impetus is present, *research* groups will throw huge amounts of effort into ways of reproducing a fingerprint signature on credit card machines. anyways, i think that my fingerprints could be more readily stolen than a physical card i carried. i would suggest adding a pin number to your fingerprint credit card.-- xiaolongbao, May 07 2002 Or use the paterns of the iris in the eye. I believe that these, like fingerprints, are different even for identical twins.
More generally, I'm all for centeralisation of data with various different methods of verification. A friend of mine once stated the view that the most important feature of a theoretically perfect OS (software that is) is that the user wouldn't be able to tell they were using it. This is a good standard for any technology which deals with human interaction, as it seems to me. There is one problem that strikes me, though: what about ordering a pizza down the phone?-- yamahito, May 07 2002 Telephones would also be fitted with a fingerprint recognitions box on the side.-- gizmo, May 07 2002 2011 and biometrics still dont work.
we'll wake up one day and they will be everywhere, just not yet-- j paul, May 30 2011 random, halfbakery