Fujitsu PalmSecure offers biometrics sans contact

Why don't people ever use fingerprint readers? Even though they're nearly ubiquitous on laptop computers these days, I've never seen one used in the real world outside of vendors demonstrating to me that their laptop has a fingerprint reader on it.

Maybe Fujitsu's PalmSecure offers an explanation: People don't want to touch the biometric scanner. You know, because it's gross.

Fujitsu's approach to biometrics: Palm scanning. How does it work? Infrared light penetrates the skin just a tad, enough to light up the veins just beneath the surface. The PalmSecure device shines IR light on your palm and snaps a picture of the vein pattern on your hand, then compares that to the one in its database which you've registered previously. If it's a match, you get through.

Fujitsu is now integrating the system into door-control systems and computer peripherals, the first being a standard mouse with the palm scanning hardware built right in. To access a PalmSecure-d PC, just hold your hand a few inches over the mouse instead of typing a password. No swiping required, just keep your palm still so it can snap a picture. Once the scanning is done, Windows approves you and lets you in.

Of course, at that point you actually have to start touching the mouse in order to use the computer... so you may need to keep some antibacterial goop handy after all.

The PalmSecure Mouse costs -- yikes -- $430 (for a single unit, including the software needed to run it) in its initial version. Volume discounts available.