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The keys to identity
THIS UNIVERSE Trends
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The keys to identity In this technology, the palm vein pattern is the key of your identity. It consists of a small palm vein scanner, which is easy to use and highly accurate. One has to simply hold the palm a few centimeters over the scanner and within a second, the scanner reads unique vein pattern of the person. A vein picture is taken and the pattern of the person is registered for identification. Once you are registered, then, no one else can login to your system and forge your data. The ATM transactions are just one of the many applications of this new technology. All biometric systems involve three basic elements: Enrollment or the process of collecting biometric samples from an individual, known as the enrollee. Templates or the data representing the enrollee’s biometric. Matching or the process of comparing a live biometric sample against one or many templates in the system’s database. The biometric methods of identification are more secure and preferred over traditional methods such as passwords and PIN numbers for various reasons: The person to be identified is required to be physically present at the time of identification; Identification based on biometric techniques does away with the need to remember a password or carry a token. Biometric recognition can be used in identification mode, where this system identifies a person from the entire enrolled population by searching a database for a match. Special Features of the Palm Vein Authentication Device: The device has following features: i) Since the biometric source is internal within the body, therefore, it is difficult to forge. As the palm veins are well inside the body, thus, it is not simple to forge or change them. Further, in comparison to veins in the fingers or the back of the hand, palm veins are more complex thereby offering greater security. ii) There is minimal impact from external factors on the palm vein authentication as the veins are not affected by the surface abrasions on the skin, therefore, the contact-less palm vein authentication device is least susceptibility to such external factors. Fujitsu collected data samples of 140,000 palm vein patterns from each hand of 70,000 people and verified reliability of its technology. There was no case in this data sample, where the technology was not applicable and thus, demonstrated its high rate of applicability. iii) Since the scanning is completed in mid-air without the need for the user’s palm to touch a surface, it is contact-less verification, thereby minimizes the apprehensions of hygiene concerns during scanning In addition to this, the device is user-friendly in the way that scanning can be completed in a natural manner that is not awkward to the user. |
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Biometrics, so far, has found use in the following applications: Telecommunications like in mobile phones, call center technology, phone cards, televised shopping. Physical access control like at the entry gates of. Institutional, government, and residential premises. Financial services like in ATMs and bank transactions. Immigration and border control like at points of entry, passport and visa issuance. Social services like fraud prevention in entitlement programs. Health care, in the security measure for privacy of medical records. Computer security for personal computer access, network access, Internet use, e-commerce, e-mail etc. Law enforcement, for example, in criminal investigation, national ID, driver’s license, correctional institutions/prisons, home confinement etc. Time and attendance by replacement of time punch card. |
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THIS UNIVERSE
Whenever I think about nature I can’t help marvellng at the creation of cycles for everything that maintains balance. In case of the greenhouse gases we have disrupted the cycle and are suffering due to that. The plants created by God as harvesters of CO2 are not able to cope up with the increased load. I want to know whether there is any other system of harvesting greenhouse gases either natural or manmade. If such a system is nonexistent, can’t we devise one, as “C” etc are very useful elements. It may be costly but will definitely be cheaper than the sufferings of mankind. I think we came upon a rather unusual environment of this earth and prospered. Such environments are not common in the universe. We are very delicately balanced here, at least for the time being. The only way we can mount any earth scale operations would be through slow and steady cooperation of other forms of life. Plants and trees would be one way but the real difference would happen over a long period of time if we can encourage the enhancement of life over the sea surface — algae for example. Carbon captured in the tiny skeletons of tiny creatures on the sea surface would capture carbon that would end up on the ocean floor. Time scales would be large, perhaps larger than the span of human civilisation. On the other hand if we would be satisfied with a simpler objective, namely not carbonising the earth atmosphere any further, then there are some possible alternatives — that we learn to live differently, emphasise the developments in solar, wind, tidal and even nuclear energy. Readers wanting to ask Prof Yash Pal a question can e-mail him at palyash.pal@gmail.com
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Trends Pluto is finally getting its day in the sun, after being stripped of planetary status by astronomers two years ago. From now on all similar distant bodies in the solar system will be called “plutoids.” That’s the decision by the International Astronomical Union, which met last week in Oslo, Norway, and announced the decision Wednesday. The same group raised a cosmic fuss when it demoted the once-ninth planet to “dwarf” status in 2006. The new policy allows Pluto to be the standard for a whole new category of dwarf planets.
— AP Monkeys who know fishing Groups of long-tailed macaques were observed four times over the past eight years scooping up small fish with their hands and eating them along rivers in East Kalimantan and North Sumatra provinces, according to researchers from The Nature Conservancy and the Great Ape Trust. The species had been known to eat fruit and forage for crabs and insects, but never before fish from rivers.
— AP Darwin still
causing waves Speeches and a scientific meeting next month will kick off 18 months of events to celebrate the impact and lasting legacy of Charles Darwin, whose theories on evolution are still causing waves 150 years later. It was on July 1, 1858 that papers on the development of animals by Darwin and fellow scientist Alfred Wallace were presented to the Linnean Society in London representing the cream of scientific knowledge. They did not go down well. “There was very little reaction in the room,” Linnean Society librarian Lynda Brooks said on Wednesday. “But the real furor didn’t begin until Darwin published ‘On The Origin of Species’ the following year”.
— Reuters |
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In the age of information technology, we increasingly rely on computers and other machines in our daily lives to ensure the security of our personal information and assets. When the bank card or personal data falls into the wrong hands, then, one has to incur heavy losses. To curb this menace of cyber crime, Fujitsu has developed a unique biometric security technology called palm vein biometrics that puts access in the palm of your hand and no one else’s. 
Long-tailed macaque monkeys have a reputation for knowing how to find food — whether it be grabbing fruit from jungle trees or snatching a banana from a startled tourist. Now, researchers say they have discovered groups of the silver-haired monkeys in Indonesia that fish.