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I think the idea of using fingerprints, retina scans, face recognition, etc. as an access token is a fascinating instance of how culture influences technology.
by csense 10y ago
I think the idea of using fingerprints, retina scans, face recognition, etc. as an access token is a fascinating instance of how culture influences technology.
These things are very poor candidates for access control because you need fuzzy statistical/ML/AI/CV recognition techniques (which means you have to worry about false positives and false negatives), and it's basically impossible to re-issue credentials in case of a compromise (changing someone's fingerprints or facial characteristics would require performing plastic surgery on the user!)
But because of movies and TV, everyone "knows" that in the future we're supposed to have our technology unlocked by our fingerprints, so that's what drives people to buy and vendors to implement, regardless of how absurdly impractical it is if you actually stop to think about it for five seconds.
- CardenB 10y agoI think it's more about convenience than sci fi.
- awqrre 10y agoIn cases where your username is not public, biometrics should not even be used as a "login name"... let alone password.
- shawnz 10y ago> But because of movies and TV, everyone "knows" that in the future we're supposed to have our technology unlocked by our fingerprints, so that's what drives people to buy and vendors to implement I, for one, would love fingerprint unlock on my phone. And it's not for any crazy sci-fi expectation -- I just don't see any other method of unlocking my phone which could be as quick and convenient as that. Facial unlock is another possibility, but what concerns me about that is how easily someone could produce a picture of my face.