Biometrics

In what feels like the first chapter in an apocalyptic science fiction story, scientists reported this week that they'd discovered a set of ancient viruses in glacier ice. Using Guliya ice cap core samples first harvested back in 2015, these researchers have discovered genetic code for 33 viruses. Just 4 of those viruses were previously known by modern humans, the rest are "novel" - previously unknown to the scientific community.

Continue Reading

Smartphones have been using biometric authentication like fingerprints and faces long before those became more common on laptops and even desktops. Microsoft's Windows Hello framework is its attempt to bring the same mix of convenience and security to its desktop platform, and, for the most part, it seems to work well enough. New security research, however, reveals a fatal flaw in Windows Hello's face recognition process that could bypass authentication using a custom-made USB device. Fortunately, exploiting that in real life isn't as simple as the flaw itself.

Continue Reading

If you live in Seattle, you'll soon be able to pay for your groceries using the palm of your hand -- literally. Amazon has announced plans to bring its Amazon One palm-scanning payment tech to several of its Seattle-area Whole Foods stores, enabling customers to register their payment card to their palm signature for contact-free checkouts.

Continue Reading

Stock Android hasn't always kept up with the trends and development in biometric security. Fingerprint remains its strongest supported system and even then it only supports the traditional optical sensors on the back of phones or under power buttons. Face recognition is still the same crude one from years ago and not the hi-tech radar-based implementation that the Pixel 4 flaunted two years ago. Now it seems that Google is finally embracing the now-common under-display fingerprint scanning technology in Android 12 but it might also be exclusive to what will eventually become the Pixel 6.

Continue Reading

Smartphones have become extensions of ourselves and have become pretty personal devices but it's not exactly unheard of to pass our phones to someone. Sometimes a family member or friend needs to borrow your phone for one reason or another and, with direct physical access, even your most secret incognito tabs are rendered ineffective. Google is now experimenting with a simple yet effective way to keep Chrome's Incognito tabs incognito using iOS Face ID or Touch ID.

Continue Reading

Qualcomm has revealed the latest version of its in-display fingerprint sensor, promising faster and more accurate scanning for a technology brought back into the spotlight by the ongoing pandemic. Though for a while it seemed that facial recognition would replace fingerprint login as the preferred way to unlock your phone, the fact that such systems struggle with face masks has led to a resurgence in interest.

Continue Reading

Amazon today announced a new contactless authentication device called Amazon One, and it's definitely a little weird. Instead of using something like a card with an NFC module built in, you'll instead use your palm. The device is getting a very limited roll out in two of its Amazon Go stores as an authentication option for entry, but the company sees Amazon One being used for a wide array of services in the future.

Continue Reading

Smart locks have been offering hi-tech ways to secure our homes but their apps ironically only provide old and less secure ways of securing access to those locks. Many phones these days provide biometric security in the form of face recognition and fingerprints to have a more accurate and foolproof way to gain access to a smartphone or files. Finally, August and Yale smart locks can now take advantage of these same technologies but the feature comes with one important catch.

Continue Reading

Google advises using Chrome's built-in features to remember information you repeatedly enter into web pages, including and especially the ones you use for secure transactions. Whether you're comfortable handing Google your logins and credit card details is a different question but it's unarguably convenient and potentially safer in some ways. It's still not completely convenient, though, and there are still a few steps that Chrome's Autofill can be made quicker yet even more secure, something that Google will soon be rolling out to Android, starting with biometrics support for credit card info.

Continue Reading

Code included with the latest update to builds of macOS Big Sur suggest that FaceID and/or TrueDepth camera tech are coming to the Mac. MacBooks and iMac computers could very well get their own 3D depth-sensing cameras in the very near future if what this code indicates comes to fruition with what's called "PearlCamera."

Continue Reading

Police forces in London, UK, have confirmed they will be switching on controversial Live Facial Recognition (LFR) systems, aiming to spot known criminals or suspects in crime hotspots around the city. The system will be able to flag individuals on a watch-list, picking known faces out of the crowd.

Continue Reading

JDI or Japan Display, Inc. is perhaps best known for making, as its name implies, display panels, many of which end up on smartphones. It does, however, also dabble in technologies only related to screens on the periphery, like biometrics and imaging sensors that can be placed under its display. Its latest boast may not yet have any display-oriented application but the new ultra-thin image sensor it has developed is in itself already impressive in how it combines two properties often found in two separate sensors.

Continue Reading