Re: [Usability] Fingerprint reader

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Sat, 3 Jun 2006, Maurizio Colucci wrote:

> Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2006 15:44:54 +0200
> From: Maurizio Colucci <maurizio colucci gmail com>
> To: usability gnome org
> Subject: [Usability] Fingerprint reader
>
> Hi,

> Yesterday, when I had a friend of mine try the new Ubuntu, I had an
> unpleasant suprise: he laughed at me when he saw me type the password by
> hand. It seems he has been using a fingerprint reader under Windows, for
> more than a year now.

This is a bit off topic for this list.  Better to check with Ubuntu about
hardware support.

> It seems the advantage under GNU/Linux would be even greater, since
> GNU/Linux requires you to type passwords more often than Windows.

(It is easier to just type Gnome than GNU/Linux every time.)

A topic more appropriate to this list would be trying to figure out ways
to improve password sharing and single sign on so that you do not need to
type passwords so often.

> Is there some way to use a fingerprint reader to type passwords with Gnome?

I assume it would fit in with the existing password infrastructure.

I know Sun Microsystems have systems setup to login and authenticate off a
smart card and there are suggestions of doing the same using USB keys so
I'd be surprised if there wasn't already a supported finger print reader
but it may take a little bit of additional work to get it up and running.

> I have no real point however, I only wished to inform you about this. Cheers

Thanks for trying.

-- 
Alan