空中飞人的福音：一种更好的指纹扫描器

    这些故障并不会造成安全隐患，只是给海关工作人员带来了额外的工作量，以及给指纹模糊或皮肤脱水的全球通关计划会员造成了不便。该计划的公关负责人斯蒂芬妮•马林表示，他们机器的出错率是3%。国际生物认证组织（IBG）的理事乔伊•史密斯称，她所在机构对政府指纹扫描器的测试表明，出错率在1%到5%之间——这个成绩跟市面的产品持平或者更好一些。

    交叉匹配公司的新机器正在接受一些客户的试用，这些机器旨在解决上述问题，并且应该能够提升性能表现。新扫描器会向无人值守亭的用户提供指导，比如“更用力按下”，它被设计来捕获手指的图像，不管手指是潮湿还是干燥。另外，扫描板也被设定保持温暖，目的是软化皮肤，使其更容易被机器读取（交叉匹配公司目前投入使用的机器中还装备了硅胶垫，以期对干燥的手指提供帮助）。

    阿尼尔•詹纳是密歇根州立大学的计算机科学教授，他跟生物识别技术研究公司（Biometric Research Group）展开了合作，他表示，身份扫描识别不可避免地会存在一定程度的误差。“这算是一种令人讨厌的事情，但谈到生物识别技术，每一种传感装置都存在问题。”他如是说道。虹膜识别可能因为眼睑下垂而变得复杂起来，面部识别则受采光不良以及年龄老化的影响。迪士尼乐园（Disney World）所采用的多光谱指纹识别——即读取静脉图案——没有跟美国庞大的数字指纹数据库连通。

    作为全球通关计划的负责人，瓦格纳承认，虹膜和面部识别技术最终可能提供更好的表现。美国政府已经开始将它们视作指纹识别的备用选项，但他说新系统投入使用以及整合到现有系统还要过一段时间。

    在那之前，指纹模糊的旅客将需要继续用到自己出汗的额头，并期望新的机器快点到来。（财富中文网）

    译者：王灿均

    These failures do not pose security risks, just extra work for customs agents and inconvenience for faint-fingered or dehydrated Global Entry members. Stephanie Malin, a public affairs officer with the program says their machines have a 3% fail rate. And Joy Smith, Director at the International Biometric Group, says her organization's tests of government machines have shown a 1 to 5% fail rate –- making them as good or better as anything in the market.

    Cross Match's new machines, which are currently being demoed by a number of customers, take aim at these issues and should improve performance. The new scanners provide guidance to kiosk users like "press harder" and are designed to capture images of either wet or dry fingers. The scanning plate also is kept at a warm temperature to soften the skin and make it more amenable to reading. (The Cross Match machines currently being used also have silicone pads that are supposed to help with dry fingers.)

    Anil Jain, a professor of computer science at Michigan State University who works with the Biometric Research Group, says some degree of error comes with the territory in identity scanning. "It's sort of a nuisance, but when it comes to biometrics, every sensing device has an issue," he says. Iris recognition can be complicated by droopy eyelids, and facial recognition by bad lighting and aging. Multi-spectral fingerprinting -- which reads vein patterns and is used by Disney World -- does not integrate with the massive U.S. database of digitized fingerprints.

    Wagner, the Global Entry Director, acknowledges the possibility that iris and facial recognition technology might ultimately offer better performance. The government has started to look at them for a backup to fingerprints, but he says it will be a while before a new system is adopted and integrated into the system.

    Until then, travelers with faint fingerprints will have to keep using their sweaty foreheads, or hope the new machines arrive soon.