Posting over at his day job, Adam Gaffin (who spends an awful lot of time here) reports that a company in Hong Kong has announced that theyve developed an improved version of the biometric finger scanner that can tell the difference between a live human finger and any attempt at a reproduction and only allow the real finger to authenticate the user.

While I’m glad to hear that Adam will sleep better at night no longer worrying that some unscrupulous evil-doer will come along and cut off his pinkies, this is actually an important improvement to the fingerprint scanner. A few years ago, a researcher proved that he could produce a replica finger using ballistics gel that would be recognized by the scanner. And the MythBusters have demonstrated that it is possible to use a photocopy of a fingerprint to open one particular brand of “invincible” locks using optical scanners (link goes to a video clip so you can see how they did it).

So, Adam, I guess you can stop wearing those chain-mail gloves to bed now.