Smartphone camera resolution can image a human retina: can we save retina biometrics?

RIDGEFIELD PARK, NJ "“ April 2, 2019 "“ Samsung Electronics America, Inc. announced that the new, award-winning Galaxy S11 and Galaxy S11+, which have been recognized by smartphone reviewers worldwide for their best-in-class display, design and camera, are now available for purchase at U.S. wireless network providers and retail stores....

The only problem is, they released a camera with combined visible light and thermal imaging capable of taking an accurate picture of a person's retina. You see, I convinced my company to let me buy one for App testing, just to see what it could do. I stopped Dr. Hayworth in the hall and asked if I could take her picture for an upcoming online marketing campaign, and she happily complied.

Then I told her there wasn't a campaign and that I really wanted to test the company's security. She was angry, but not as angry as when we walked to her secure lab and I showed the biometric scanner the image I took of her eyes. Heaven forgive me, but the shade of angry red she turned when the door unlocked was actually really pretty....

At least she backed me up when we went to the executive staff and told them any idiot with one of these phones could walk into every secured part of the building. They were pretty straight-faced when they applauded my initiative — and then they ordered me to contact BioSmart and ask them what we should do about the millions of dollars we spent buying and installing their retina scanners last month.

Ladies and gentlemen, you're the lead engineer at BioSmart Retina Scanners, Inc. The company has scanners installed world-wide, but the world doesn't know (yet) that they can now be beaten by a mischievous 9-year-old.

After getting off the phone with the client and quickly changing his underwear, your CEO invited you to think very quickly about how to deal with a smartphone that can outsmart your 2018 retina scanner. You have 24 hours to come up with a viable idea for salvaging the scanners before he shares his bathroom plumbing frustrations with the whole company.

Question: What ideas do you have to modify 2018 retina scanners to compensate for smartphones that can take pictures of people's retinas and display them with enough precision to fool the scanners?

Non-Narrative Background

• We're on a near-future Earth.

• BioSmart's scanning technology exists or is licensed around the world. A failure to find a fix will not only destroy BioSmart Inc., but will have global security ramifications.

• Existing and near-future technology is allowed. No Clarkean Magic, though. If you can't credibly convince me/us that your solution is viable in, say, less than 10 years, then it's not an answer. (Yes, my storyline says 2019, but that's likely too limiting for useful answers.)

• We'll skip the economics of fixing the problem, so replacing the old units with new units that solve the problem is OK (even assumed). Yes, this is a bit of fanciful magic, but I'm only interested in the nature of the fix, not how to roll it out.

posted over 6 years ago

JBH‭

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