Fallible Detective

Fingerprint-identification equipments may not always give the right results. These equipments can be duped by a piece of gelatin, according to a study undertaken by a Japanese mathematician. Tsutomu Matsumoto of Yokohama National University says that his findings could undermine the extravagant claims being made for biometry, which uses inherent human traits such as fingerprints to automatically identify individuals. During his study, Matsumoto made plastic moulds of his subject's fingers, poured gelatin into the moulds and let the thin 'gummy fingers' harden. Hundreds of trials by five people on 11 devices showed that a person wearing the 'gummy finger' could pass for the subject nearly every time.

Even more alarmingly, Matsumoto was able to create an effective fake fingerprint from a piece of glass that the subject had touched. He used a digital camera to photograph an enhanced copy of the mark, etched it on a printed circuit board and used this to produce a fake finger made of gelatin. "What's really scary is that anyone could do this," says Matsumoto. "The technology is all on the internet and can be easily used at home."

Sony and Fujitsu, the leading manufactures of automated fingerprint readers, declined to deny that their devices could be deceived by Matsumoto's gummy finger. They say that they are developing better systems such as those that will use light from the side that diffuses through the subject's finger, instead of just reflecting off the fingerprint. However, Matsumoto says that his concerns are about the concept of blindly relying on biometry.

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