CNET is reporting that Sony has developed a new biometric scanning technology, called "Mofiria", that scans the veins in your finger in order to provide access to your laptop or PC.
The scanner uses a CMOS sensor to capture scattered light within the finger veins, and compresses the date to allow it to be stored on laptops, or even cellphones.
There are many benefits to this new method, claims Sony. Firstly, this technology claims a high accuracy rate, with less than 0.1% false identification. Secondly, it takes a lot less time to scan the finger; it takes 0.015 seconds to scan on a computer CPU, and 0.25 seconds on a mobile phone CPU. Finger vein patterns are different between each person, between each finger and best of all, don"t change over time.
This is not the first company to use vein scanning technology, however. Hitachi has been working on bringing this into some motor vehicles, built right into the steering wheel. Additionally, Fujitsu has a palm-reading mouse that also scans veins. They also claim it is faster and more accurate.
This is a good step for computer security, and hopefully becomes more readily available in the near future.