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Phrase of the day: "It is strongly recommended that you enroll more than one finger in the event of injury."
Some time ago, UPEK sent us a
USB version of those fingerprint readers frequently seen on laptops and fancy thumbdrives. I finally got around to testing it and can report that it works. A+. Great ebayer.
Installation is easy, and the resulting configuration appears as an overlay on the login screen, as an IE extension and Firefox plugin, and as Protector Suite QL, a memory-resident tray app that watches for swipes and manages setup. Tested on Windows, software is also available for the Mac.
Enrolling a new user is simple enough. First, select an enrollment mode--to disk or to the sensor's own memory (it only has space for 21 prints)--and then swipe up to 10 fingerprints. It makes you do it three times to ensure consistency of swipe.
You can choose a master password to unravel everything in the event of the device being broken, but basic use means it just automatically enters passwords you already know anyway. A "secure mode"
only allows the master user to enroll new users, while a "convenient mode" lets anyone put it to use. Required accuracy can be set with a slider.
You can use the dongle for windows logons and for password boxes in websites and applications. This USB biometric swiper isn't, as far as I can tell, good for more elaborate password schemes that operate at the BIOS level or change the key every 5 minutes or what-have-you.
It's good enough to secure specific computers and offline applications, but not so good for websites, wherein you'll generally want to remember your passwords to access them from any terminal.
Product Page [Amazon]
