RFID Lowdown: Biometrics Defeats The School Bully?

November 04, 2006

Biometrics Defeats The School Bully?

If you haven't experienced it yourself, you've seen it happen, at least on TV. The school bully and his lackeys "persuade" the milk money out of the weaker kids. Well a Scottish school has a solution to that problem, but for a different reason. For some reason, they're employing "palm vein scanning" biometrics supposedly as a way to encourage kids to eat better. [InfoWorld via SecureID News]

How does being able to identify a child by their palm encourage them to eat better? Well, the idea is that students from low-income families get free meals at school. But under old methods where students presented a ticket or coupon, they were sometimes picked on/ teased and wouldn't take advantage of the free meal.

It seems like an extreme solution for a good cause, and I still don't see how it encourages them to eat any better, unless students are limited to only healthy items. Because the system is new, privacy groups haven't weighed in yet, but had criticized a previously considered fingerprint-based system.

The InfoWorld article also indicates that the students are happy (why not - it's like something out of science fiction). Something as fun for kids would be a LAKS watch, which has RFID/ NFC technology and can be used for contactless payment. Though it'd probably be too costly a solution, since every student would have to have one under the premise that no student should feel singled out and thus stigmatized. But at least with the biometric system, the school bully can't steal your milk money.

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November 4, 2006 | Permalink