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Microcap & Penny Stocks : IDTEK Smart-card fingerprint security -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: caly who wrote (2)	1/14/1999 8:19:00 PM
From: David	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11

I guess we agree on the problem of enrollment fraud. Since you are going to have to register at a central location no matter what type of biometric smart card, I think a lot of the purported convenience and cost advantages disappear from this product. There are other biometric smart cards out there -- Identicator has a pilot going at Fort Bliss, for instance, and Identix has one at O'Hare airport. Those cards are presented, and then the card owner must meet the challenge of matching the template by placing his finger down on a fingerscanner. IDT's fingerscanner is already under $100 as resold by Compaq, and post 1144 on the Mytec thread quotes a Mastercard spokesman as implying that these scanners should be down to $30 in a few years. At that price, fingerscanners are certainly cost-competitive with smart card readers. Also, a few bio-ID companies are combining fingerscanners and smart card readers in one device. This brings me back to my original point: What's the big advantage in this self-authenticating biometric smart card? It has a much higher potential for abuse, and not a significant cost savings. However, I don't see any competition between smart cards and biometrics. I think they will combine into a very secure instrument.