Friday, January 12, 2001
High tech joins the lunch line
By Patrick Kerkstra
INQUIRER SUBURBAN STAFF
When the police or FBI want foolproof confirmation of
identity, they use biometric technology. When Welsh
Valley Middle School wants to speed 400 students
through the cafeteria in under an hour, it does, too.
Fingerprint identification has come to the school lunch
line.
Since fall, Welsh Valley, in Lower Merion, and a few
other Pennsylvania schools have been testing a no-ink
scanning system that reads a student's fingerprints
when they are placed on scanner, then automatically
deducts the cost of a meal from a preestablished account.
Participation in the system is voluntary. If they want, parents can prevent
their children from buying individual items, such as french fries, and require
them to get full lunches instead - at least, in theory. All food purchases are
recorded, and, if parents ask, the school will whip up a list of everything
their child is eating.
The system is faster than cash, eliminates lunch-money bullies, and uses
something that children cannot lose or forget.
But it is more than a high-tech answer to playground extortion. The Welsh
Valley students are getting a glimpse of what could be our common consumer
future: systems of biometry - literally, the statistical analysis of biological
phenomena - that scan our voices, fingerprints or retinas in grocery stores,
banks and corner coffee shops.
"I think the entire biometrics industry sees that as the future," said Sandra
Salzer, a spokeswoman for Sagem Morpho Inc., which makes fingerprint
scanners.
The International Biometric Industry Association, a trade group, believes that
biometric sales will grow from $150 million this year to about $2.5 billion by
the end of the decade, according to its executive director, Richard E. Norton.
"The day when biometrics will be used universally for every payment, well,
yes, that's still very far away," said Raj Nanavati, a partner with the
International Biometric Group. "But you'll start to see several high-profile
consumer applications very soon."
Biometrics are used most often in closed social networks, such as
corporations and college campuses. But the Lower Merion School District
plans to install the systems at its nine other schools next year, said Jack
Koser, the Lower Merion food-service director.
"This system is great," said Koser, who hopes eventually to put the
fingerprint readers on district vending machines.
For their part, some students seem distinctly unimpressed.
"It's kind of silly," said sixth grader Julietta Fusaro, whose lunch yesterday
consisted of chocolate milk and french fries with barbecue sauce. "I don't see
why we should have that thing."
Moreover, Julietta seemed to have found a way to beat the system: Her
account forbids her to buy single items, but sympathetic cashiers let her
through.
"I'm not supposed to eat that much junk," she said, "but I do anyway."
The system, using Sagem Morpho fingerprint technology, is put together by
Food Service Solutions Inc. of Altoona. One of its selling points, according to
the company's president, Mitch Johns, is the ability to win school districts
more federal and state money.
Some public funding is allocated based on how many students take part in
federal free-lunch programs. Historically, Johns said, some students have
been embarrassed to produce cards or tickets that identify them as free-lunch
eligible and so do not use the program.
But with a fingerprint scanner or any other computer system, students
whose lunches are free cannot be distinguished from those buying their food.
"We've discovered that, from the student standpoint, perception is reality,"
Johns said. "So the more we can get them to believe they are not being
identified publicly as free-lunch students, the more likely they are to accept
the free lunch. And the more free lunches eaten mean that much more money
for the school."
At a wealthy school district like Lower Merion, the impact on grant income is
minimal, but Koser said the convenience of the system had helped double
cafeteria sales at Welsh Valley since last school year.
And he characterized the cost to the district of the system - $50,000 in local
money plus $30,000 from Harrisburg - as relatively modest.
Still, some have concerns that go beyond cost.
"I think we ought to maintain the role of fingerprints in our culture as a tool
for fighting crime and not for becoming more active consumers," Larry
Frankel, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in
Pennsylvania, said.
Frankel worries about the potential impact of mixing fingerprints - usually
associated with police dramas and suspect lineups - with everyday activities
like school lunch. He's also concerned about where the data could end up.
"A fingerprint is a unique identifier," he said. ". . . Who knows what purposes
it might eventually be used for?"
The system's supporters say there is no threat of the fingerprint data's being
used by police or any other organization.
The Welsh Valley scanners do not store an entire fingerprint, only a series of
the unique intersections formed by the swirls and arcs that make up a print.
According to Sagem Morpho publications, it is impossible to re-create a full
fingerprint from the stored intersections.
"You do have some people who worry that this is Big Brother watching you,"
Johns said. "But we don't use the same system that law enforcement does.
They use a much higher form of identification."
And students have the option, he added, of using a password instead of their
fingerprints.
inq.philly.com:80/content/inquirer/2001/01/12/front_page/WFOOD12.htm
(Picture)
As schoolmates wait their turn,
Julietta Fusaro, a sixth grader at
Welsh Valley Middle School in
Lower Merion, scans a finger on
the cafeteria fingerprint reader
to pay for french fries, barbecue
sauce and chocolate milk.
(Inquirer)
inq.philly.com:80/objects/inquirer/images/2001/01/12/WFOOD12.GIF
steve |
