“Called TAPS, the product is essentially a sticker that layers a prosthetic fingerprint over the finger of a glove, allowing an iPhone owner to scan Touch ID even while wearing gloves.”
A Vancouver-based startup is raising some funding for a new product based on fingerprint spoofing technology.
It’s not for fraudsters; it’s meant to help people use their own iPhones more conveniently. Called TAPS, the product is essentially a sticker that layers a prosthetic fingerprint over the finger of a glove, allowing an iPhone owner to scan Touch ID even while wearing gloves. The system is flexible, waterproof, and based on ‘nanoparticle infused material’, which “is what makes TAPS work,” according to its Kickstarter page.
For those wondering how the sticker gets the user’s fingerprint: It doesn’t. Each sticker comes with its own unique fingerprint, so users will have to add these artificial fingerprints to their own fingerprints saved in their iPhones’ biometric rosters.
Given Apple’s emphasis on the security of its devices, and particularly its Touch ID fingerprint scanning, this startup’s production of artificial fingerprints may raise some eyebrows. But with winter coming on, there appears to be some demand for this solution, with the project already far ahead of its funding goal on Kickstarter.
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November 25, 2016 – by Alex Perala
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