Is this biometric device actually reading or just recording?

[haapai]

We've recently had new time clocks installed.  After swiping our IDs, we are instructed to place our finger on the scanner and not move it until something happens.

I've got my doubts that the device in question is actually comparing my fingerprint to anything on file, at least not while I'm standing there at the time clock.  The amount of time that I'm leaving my finger on the scanner seems awfully short for such a complex bit of analysis. 

Does anyone have any idea how these devices actually work?  I don't want to ask anyone that I work with these questions because I don't want to embarrass them and I certainly don't want to hear a made-up answer.

[Ryan]

Jul 24, 2014 15:35:29 GMT -5 haapai said:

We've recently had new time clocks installed.  After swiping our IDs, we are instructed to place our finger on the scanner and not move it until something happens.

I've got my doubts that the device in question is actually comparing my fingerprint to anything on file, at least not while I'm standing there at the time clock.  The amount of time that I'm leaving my finger on the scanner seems awfully short for such a complex bit of analysis. 

Does anyone have any idea how these devices actually work?  I don't want to ask anyone that I work with these questions because I don't want to embarrass them and I certainly don't want to hear a made-up answer.

I'm sure it does something because, if it doesn't, wouldn't people figure it out right away?  Have you tried just putting like half your finger on the slot to see if it would accept/reject you as you clock in?

They have fingerprint scanners on the iphone so they can't be that expensive.  

[mollyanna58]

It may be comparing your fingerprint to the magnetic file strip on the back of the card, which wouldn't take long. 

[achelois]

I dont know about your timeclock, but in the OR and other places in the hospital we have Accudose machines that dispense drugs and they (in my hospital) were accessed with fingerprint. 

It only took a very short time usually. I cant tell you how it works unfortunately, only that it does. 

[haapai]

Wouldn't reorienting the image to the image on file and accounting for differences in pressure, spacing, new scars, and dirt take a bit of time?  The time that I am spending at the clock with my finger on the scanner seems like enough time to scan but hardly enough time to perform that kind of analysis. 

[ArchietheDragon]

Did your employer get a scan of your fingertip when they installed the new time clockes?

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

I don't know about fingerprints, but I've gotten to use the retinal scans for international travel that are associated with my Nexus card.  Once I stare into the machine for about 3 seconds (if that), they have a scan and print out my record.

It does function fairly fast for something that is at least as complex as fingerprints.

[haapai]

Jul 24, 2014 15:59:10 GMT -5 ArchietheDragon said:

Did your employer get a scan of your fingertip when they installed the new time clockes?

Yup.  There was an enrollment process.  It was basically a managerial override, a swipe and a scan.  But I'm not sure how much that actually means.  It's still possible that the actual comparison is not taking place immediately.  That is, any scan that fits their parameters of a valid scan (enough fingerprint) will be initially accepted. 

[Sum Dum Gai]

The fingerprint scanners at my old building were actually comparing the scanned print to the print they have on file.  Computers are really fast these days.  All it's doing is comparing an image of the scanned print against an image of a previously stored print, and checking to make sure the two images share a certain number of markers.  Why would that take more than a few seconds?

Ours were used in conjunction with a smart card though.  You swiped first to tell the computer who you were, then you scanned your print.  That way the computer isn't comparing your scan against an entire database, instead it already knows which specific record to compare against, and was probably just comparing it to the image embedded on the chip in the card.

[haapai]

Yup, we swipe first.  That's almost certainly bringing up the comparison code and vastly reducing the size of the analytic job that needs to be done. 

I'm surprised by the apparent speed because my company tends to lag and go cheap when it comes to tech.  Our computers still require multiple log-ins and five years ago we were still batch-processing data that almost everyone else did instantaneously.  If it was cheaper to grab scans and process them later (sending a discrepancy report if necessary), we'd be doing that. 

[shanendoah]

Fingerprint scanning technology has been around for a long time, even in private businesses. When I still lived in Reno (circa 2000), some of the banks used thumbprints for people to access their accounts.
As someone else mentioned, the new iPhones use fingerprints instead of passwords for access, so the tech has been around quite some time and is likely fairly cheap by now.

[msventoux]

I'm amazed they work that well.  My only experiences were at a national testing company, and they were only able to get my prints once.  The rest of the time they either just let me go or drug out the old ink pad and did it the old fashioned way.