Biometric touchscreen recognises prints for first time

This is new, the very first touchscreen to recognize you by your finger print. This could introduce a new and secure way to interact with computers in public places.

"Displays cannot scan fingerprints and fingerprint sensors cannot display images. What we have invented does both. No one has done this before," says Christian Holz of the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany.

Holz and colleague Patrick Baudisch built their screen to overcome a major drawback with current displays: they emit light but cannot sense it. This flaw makes it impossible for the screen itself to recognise a user via their fingerprint, unless a separate sensor is set up beside the screen.

The researchers created their prototype using a glass screen comprised entirely of millions of 3-millimetre-long optical fibres
 

bundled together vertically into a single flat platter. Each fibre pipes out rays of visible light from an image projector mounted below the glass. Meanwhile, infrared light from a source adjacent to the projector bounces off the fingerprints and back down to an infrared camera.newscienrist.com