Fingerprint recognition in schools

[Ian Batten]

On 5 Oct 2008, at 09:50, Roland Perry wrote:

> In article <F8D90E6D-237C-42C1-8710-ACED25647D5A@batten.eu.org>, Ian
> Batten <igb@batten.eu.org> writes
>> There's no reason it  is related to the change from cards to prints,
>> but parents whose  children are already in the school are heartily  
>> sick
>> of the fact that  payment has to be made by cheque, and the new
>> system's tie in to  online payment is incredibly attractive.
>
> My kids secondary school it's cash or nothing. Well not quite  
> "nothing"
> as they have some sort of token system for free school meal recipients
> that I'm not at all sure meets the criteria for recipients of free
> school meals to be indistinguishable at the point of delivery.

That requirement is one of the main points in favour of non-cash  
systems.  People in receipt of free meals receive a regular credit to  
a specified value.  In which case I can clearly see the reason to tie  
the token to the user by something slightly more credible than  
physical possession.

> When I looked at this, my impression was that the system was pretty  
> low
> cost (and low resolution), and the hash was therefore inherently
> irreversible to anything useful.

It is apparently is going to pop up a photograph of the child to the  
operator, which tends to imply that the vendors have limited faith in  
the resolution of their system...

ian


ian