Biometric fingerprint technology: The Eikon fingerprint reader

YOUR fingerprint may soon replace your (likely forgeable) signature, and will do away with the need for usernames and passwords. Biometric fingerprint technology has already made it possible to do banking and identity analysis with your fingertip, and have now released a device that grants you unique access to your personal computer.

The Eikon fingerprint reader is a portable USB device that has been primarily developed for remote employees to gain access to corporate resources and networks with a swipe of their finger. According to a press release, this more convenient way of logging into corporate networks has resulted in increased productivity and has reduced the risk of major data breaches.

To put it simply, the fingerprint reader allows users to effortlessly swipe their finger across a device (instead of typing in usernames and passwords) to log into Windows, access password-protected websites, encrypt and decrypt files, switch users, and launch favorite applications.

The Eikon fingerprint reader

The Eikon fingerprint reader is a product of UPEK Inc., which is hailed as one of the global leaders in enterprise and consumer biometric fingerprint solutions. Their authentication hardware and software are integrated into laptops from the world's top five largest PC makers, as well as USB flash drives, external hard disk drives, and mobile phones from leading manufacturers. In other words you’re not likely to escape this wave of technology if you buy a new phone or laptop in the near future.

I burnt one of my fingertips (fingerprint included) beyond recognition in a freak stove-related accident when I was younger. But luckily for me (and others who have similar war-stories) we still (hopefully) have nine fingers left with prints intact. I’m just worried that one of my other fingers will get chopped of by a mugger when word of this technology hits the streets.

The Eikon fingerprint reader works with Internet Explorer and Firefox, and is compatible with both Windows XP and Vista. It goes for $39 (roughly R300).

Related post: Your finger or your life!

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HAWT: A brief look at gaming on future computers

IT'S the year 2010. You've been playing your favourite computer game for the last two hours. You've become oblivious to the loud whirring sound your PC's fans have been making. Suddenly you smell smoke. The next thing you know - your trusted PC has committed arson!

Intel’s Chief Technology Officer Pat Gelsinger predicts that with the current rate of progress PC chips by the end of the decade will be as hot as the exhaust gases emitted from a rocket engine; and not long after that, PC chips may become as hot as the surface of the sun!

Luckily for gamers, Quantum computing and biological computing are two growing technologies that are helping to prevent future risks of our PC’s setting fire to our houses. Refining techniques and computer technicians have found that silicon is just as useful for keeping chips in computers cool as it is for enlarging breasts. And as far as speed is concerned, current trends show that the number of transistors on these silicon chips have doubled every two years.

Makin' bacon on a PC chip ...
Several techno-pessimists have also been worrying about the idea of future computers becoming larger than our flammable houses. In 1949 Popular Mechanics predicted that computers in the ‘future’ would weigh no less that 1.5 tons. Yet the reassuring fact of the matter is that the advance in technology far outruns such predictions, and newer computers have rather shown to be getting smaller.

One prediction that is highly probable, however, is that future technology is bringing us frighteningly close to producing our very own matrix – a virtual, simulated world inhabited by computer programs so complex that we think they are actual people. And with the development of Virtual Retinal Display sets, it will soon be possible to immerse oneself into this virtual world, and in a sense, live it.

It seems that the only technological innovation missing at this point is how to pee without having to go to the bathroom ...

Related post: Multi-billion dollar gaming

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