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San Francisco (pte028/12.07.2005/13:48) - Makers of computers are manufacturing more PCs with biometric sensors that read fingerprints. The technology is becoming increasingly popular in the age where security and privacy become more prevalent.
In recent months Hewlett-Packard http://www.hp.com , Toshiba http://www.toshiba.com and Lenovo http://www.lenovo.com/us/ have produced notebooks that dispense with passwords, using biometric sensors to read fingerprints before allowing access to networks and Web sites.
Although fingerprint technology has been around since the late 1990s, production costs of fingerprint sensors are now considerably cheaper than the once pricy versions produced by Compaq and Acer.
Additionally, the technology is more reliable today - and more cost effective, says Matt Wagner, an HP product manager who specializes in wireless security.
"Everybody uses passwords, and everybody hates them," said Clain Anderson, director of wireless and security products for Lenovo.
"If you have something in your PC that is worthwhile, a password by itself isn't enough (to secure it)," he added. "This gives you another alternative. Everyone carries a fingerprint with them all the time. It's low cost, and the technology has matured tremendously."
Although most notebooks are aimed at the corporate market, Fujitsu and Toshiba are now offering consumer models.
The early fingerprint sensors from the late Nineties cost around US$40 - $50. They are now available for under $5, explains Jim Burke, vice president of communications at AuthenTec, a Florida maker of biometric fingerprint sensors.
"In the past, the sensors were ordered in hundreds," Burke said. "Today they're in the thousands and millions."
Eventually the PC feature will be so cheap that it will be included on all computers.
Many companies have been using the fingerprint technology together with passwords to secure their networks.
"There is no security measure that is totally invulnerable," notes Anderson of Lenovo. "There is no such thing." Yet he is still confident that simulating fingerprints is much harder to do than work out a password.
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