tagged w/ Fingerprinting
-
Want fingerprint recognition on your iPhone? Or how about facial recognition?
If reports about a new Apple patent approval are to be believed, you might not have to wait that long. The company have apparently developed a new technique that 'would hide a biometric reader inside an iPhone or a Mac and let owners lock down their systems with fingerprints or even facial recognition.'
The patent, revealed for the first time only last week, is a 'call to arms' for Apple who have openly discussed how they'd like to provide a securer way to prevent unauthorised access to their devices or data stored within them, instead of relying on existing techniques such as passcodes. And what makes it even better than being some super, next-level cyber-security feature, is that Apple don't want it to take up any of your device's existing memory and don't want it to interfere with how you'd normally interact with your iPhone.
I sooo want fingerprint recognition instead of my passcode. Getting four correct digits in the correct order is a nightmare after a few shandies...Want fingerprint recognition on your iPhone? Or how about facial recognition?
If... more
-
-
Fingerprinting and analysis of hair fibers and marks made by weapons are familiar forensic tools to those of us who love crime shows, never mind to criminal defendants on trial and those who say they were wrongly convicted by evidence based on those techniques.
So you may be surprised to learn that none of those methods — which comprise the majority of what most real-life labs do — has been scientifically validated, and of the techniques commonly used in the nation's forensic labs, only DNA analysis has been rigorously proven to match a suspect to a crime.
Those are the conclusions of a new report released yesterday by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). "In terms of the reliability and accuracy in making individualization conclusions, it is fair to say that, with the exception of nuclear DNA analysis, there is a lot we do not know about other forensic disciplines," said the NAS panel's co-chair, Constantine Gatsonis, director of the Center for Statistical Sciences at Brown University, in a statement.
In the report, the NAS recommends that Congress establish a National Institute of Forensic Science to study the non-validated techniques, and to create and enforce standards for forensic scientists and the labs they work in. Those labs should work independently of police departments and prosecutors, the panel that assembled the report added.
After the findings were released, Sen. Jay Rockefeller said he'd introduce legislation that would "address the need for standards, including best practices and certification and accreditation of forensic professionals."
Between 5 percent and 10 percent of a crime lab's analysis involves DNA testing; the rest encompasses other techniques, according to the New York-based Innocence Project, which works to exonerate convicts through DNA analysis. (The Human Genome Project has a detailed explanation of what happens to DNA in a forensics lab.)
In the case of tool mark analysis, there aren't studies of large populations that would show how many of the weapons such as knives or wood share distinguishing characteristics. Scientists lack information about how much one person's fingerprints vary with each impression — and how much prints differ across a population. And there's no evidence that analyzing hair fibers is a reliable way to identify a specific person, said the report, which Congress commissioned two years ago.
About half of the 232 people the Innocence Project has helped exonerate were originally found guilty by "unvalidated or improper" forensics, the group says. Its co-director, Peter Neufeld, called the NAS findings "unprecedented."
"This report is a major breakthrough toward ensuring that so-called scientific evidence in criminal cases is solid, validated and reliable," Neufeld, who testified at NAS hearings on the issue and shared data with the panel, said in a statement. "For too long, forensic science professionals have not had the support or management needed to identify the real strengths and weaknesses of different assays and techniques. This report provides the roadmap for rectifying that problem."Fingerprinting and analysis of hair fibers and marks made by weapons are familiar... more
-
-
"Italy may demand all its citizens be fingerprinted, a move aimed at defusing widespread criticism of government plans to force Roma people and their children to provide fingerprints as a way of tackling criminality."
http://current.com/items/89104379_eu_parliament_warns_italy_over_gypsy_fingerprinting
A parliamentary committee agreed on Wednesday that from 2010 all identity cards, which Italians already have to carry, should include the fingerprints of the bearer. The measure still has to pass through parliament."
How would you react if your country were to take fingerprints? Do you think it is a necessary measure to improve security or a way to have more control over citizens?"Italy may demand all its citizens be fingerprinted, a move aimed at defusing... more
-
-
"Thousands of Roma Gypsy children and adults will be fingerprinted from Sunday in the Italian capital, Rome, despite strong criticism from European and religious organisations.
The fingerprinting and identification process will be coordinated with the Red Cross and 'cultural mediators' and the Roma will receive a sanitary card, allowing them access to Italy's social and health services.
Gypsy children, whose parents keep them out of school and send them to beg on the streets would lose custody of their children, under the plan announced by Maroni.
Of the 150,000 Roma Gypsies who live in Italy, about 70,000 have Italian citizenship. Many Roma Gypsies come from Romania."
"Thousands of Roma Gypsy children and adults will be fingerprinted from Sunday in... more
-
