The myth of the palm prints
The myth of the palm prints is that we'll give them more readily than fingerprints.
Fujitsu is testing this through a security system dubbed Palm Secure, which it has already sold to medical systems in three states.
Hiroku Hiroko Naito, who works the company's new products group, told ZDNet yesterday that hospitals in North Carolina, Florida and California are all using it to protect medical records, with an almost universal acceptance and over 250,000 records on file.
"Fingerprint records compare pictures to pictures, and proximity of each fold, and based on 4-18 matches.
"What we're extracting is not precisely disclosed, but we're exchanging several types of information and running a mathematical comparison."
What the Fujitsu Web site says is that Palm Secure identifies patterns of veins on your palm, so you're not pressing your hand into a reader but holding it over the reader.
This non-invasive, contact-less interface is relatively easy to install. Fujitsu's primary OEM in the U.S. is HT Systems of Tampa, FL.
Baycare Health Systems of Clearwater, FL is one of the three big customer wins. The Carolinas HealthCare System in Charlotte is a customer. A release on the Fujitsu site also lists City of Angels Hospital as a customer.
The newest win is the ValleyCare Health System of Pleasanton, CA.
Maintaining identity and audit trails is a key challenge for reducing fear of EMRs and PHRs. If you can do that without touching anything you're more likely to do it.
That's the myth of the palm prints anyway.