Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down – Intel Debuts Prototype Palm-Reading Tech to Replace Passwords [Poll]

This week Intel debuted prototype palm-reading tech that could serve as a replacement for our current password system. Our question for you today is do you think this is the right direction to go for better security or do you feel this is a mistake?

Photo courtesy of Jane Rahman.

Needless to say password security breaches have been a hot topic as of late, so perhaps a whole new security model is in order. It would definitely eliminate the need to remember a large volume of passwords along with circumventing the problem of poor password creation/selection.

At the same time the new technology would still be in the ‘early stages’ of development and may not work as well as people would like. Long-term refinement would definitely improve its performance, but would it really be worth pursuing versus the actual benefits?

From the blog post: Intel researcher Sridhar Iyendar demonstrated the technology at Intel’s Developer Forum this week. Waving a hand in front of a “palm vein” detector on a computer, one of Iyendar’s assistants was logged into Windows 7, was able to view his bank account, and then once he moved away the computer locked Windows and went into sleeping mode.

The biometric sensors used on the laptop detect the unique vein patterns on a palm, which is of course far more difficult to forge than a password made up of ‘12345’ or ‘qwerty’.

What are your thoughts on replacing the current password system with palm-reading tech? Do you feel this is a natural (and good) progression for better security or is this a mistake? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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You can read more about this new prototype tech by visiting the two posts linked below:

Your palm will be your next password [ZDNet]

With the wave of a hand, Intel wants to do away with passwords [Reuters]