Hi: A little over a year ago a company started offering a fingerprint reader that used an optical line scanner to read the visible print as the finger was manually (or should I say digitally) scanned past it's window. After reading about it the obvious way to defeat it was to do something similar to the process in the link below. An email to the manufacturer asking about this was not answered. In the Jan 2005 issue of Sensors magazine the article "A Multispectral Sensor for Fingerprint Spoof Detection" shows a new sensor where IR is added to the visible light so not only does the visible image need to match but also the heat below the skins surface. See: http://www.sensorsmag.com/articles/0105/25/ Some of the packages delivered by the USPS, Fedex, UPS, etc require a signature. Sometimes that's provided on an electronic touch pad rather than with pen and ink. Years ago there were articles that pointed out that the dynamics of the signature were harder to forge than the appearance of the signature. By dynamics I mean the velocity, acceleration and jerk in the X and y axis. A PIC could be connected to one of these electronic signature input devices and extract some key dynamics values whose vector distance to a standard would be computed by a larger computer somewhere else. Either of the methods above, and/or others, will eventually be more common since identity theft is a hot topic now. In the U.S. many congressmen/congresswomen have it as one of their legislative agendas. The internet, eBay, PayPal etc. are making identity theft more visible than it used to be. Have Fun, Brooke Clarke, N6GCE -- w/Java http://www.PRC68.com w/o Java http://www.pacificsites.com/~brooke/PRC68COM.shtml http://www.precisionclock.com Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 11:59:26 +0100 (MET) From: Jan-Erik Soderholm To: piclist@mit.edu Subject: RE: [AD]: Project offer any one interested? ATM scams Message-ID: <9229414.1109242766467.JavaMail.tomcat@pne-ps5-sn1> Content-Type: text/plain;charset="ISO-8859-1" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Precedence: list Reply-To: "Microcontroller discussion list - Public." Message: 12 Jinx wrote : >>> > So far only wallets and codes were stolen. Now it's time >>> > for eyes and fingers. >> >> >> >> People have done it with relative's thumbs to collect >> pensions after the legitimate owner of the thumb >> has gone to a better place > > Actualy, you don't have to steal the whole finger, it's enough to collect an ordinary fingerprint. An Swedish student showed how this can be done at the CeBit electronics fair in Hannover/Germany last year. Here is an article (in Swedish, but with a lot pictures) : http://nyteknik.se/art/37392 In short : - Collect a fingerprint from someone. - Use traditional techniqes to save it. - Etch a copy of it on standard PCB laminate material. - Pour some rubber/plastic mould over the etched PCB. - You will get a thin, transparent, faked "skin" that can be put on your own finger. It's hard to see the extra "skin" layer. She was able to break most equipment for reading fingerprints at CeBit. Her work was based on a work done by someone from Japan, here : http://www.rootsecure.net/content/downloads/pdf_downloads/fingerprint_scanners.pdf Interesting reading... Enjoy ! Jan-Erik. -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist