I disagree.

Although other technologies exist that utilize biometrics in more "natural" ways, the bar code has a number of considerable advantages that make it superior for their purposes.

- Invisible To the Naked Eye. This makes them more attractive psychologically as they don't muck up your body and are non-invasive. If the ink used responds only to certain light bandwidths, impersonation will be extremely difficult as you would have to physically cut off someone's hand to commit identity theft.

- Fault Tolerant. They can be read in any direction and require only software AND hardware that already exists and is a proven technology. As any programmer knows: Simpler is better.

- Robust. A simple cut on the thumb could render a print-reader useless. People's irises change considerably over time making this technology flaky and unnecessarily complex. Finger/thumb prints also change size over time incurring the additional expense and inconvenience of rescanning necessary as children grow (this can be overcome with complex and CPU-intensive software in some cases). Bar codes are robust and not easily affected by the material they are attached to.

- Scalable. Because of the familiar 6-6-6- synchronization bars on either side and in the middle of a bar code, they can be sized to fit the person they are being applied to. The small hands of children are no problem.

- Legally Sound. Because there are no incisions for RFID chips and there are no physical contact points for current biometric readings to spread germs and disease, the manufacturer(s) has/have less risk of liability.

- Convenient. Bar codes can also be read at considerable distances requiring less work and/or responsibility from the subject in terms of positioning and distance. This also improves speed and reliability.

- Sanitary. There is no need to come in close proximity to or to touch a surface in order to complete the identification process. This prevents the spread of germs.

- Cheap. The hardware and software that reads these codes already exists and is inexpensive and proven.

- Theft Tolerant. It's possible to fool a machine that reads irises or fingerprints. Using special inks and possibly a secondary authentication method (using these along with fingerprints, etc only when additional security is necessary) would provide even more security for sensitive or large transactions.

- Fast, Efficient, Portable. Any graphical form of biometrics is memory and CPU intensive as you have to store graphical information, and considering the numbers of subjects involved, this becomes a real issue. CPU utilization also increases dramatically with biometrics as graphics have to be rendered and analyzed in 2 or 3 dimensions and/or complex and expensive pressure sensors must be utilized for physical contact analyzation. Bar codes provide a quick, easy 2-dimensional single vector (extremely small) image (actually, it's never rendered as an image, saving even more memory and CPU) that can be scanned and processed as quickly as the mirror in the device spins. The only long-term database storage necessary is a simple number instead of a biometric graphic, the number being many times smaller and therefore less expensive to store. Readers can be small, fast, cheap, and reliable—even battery powered.


For those who have an ear...
The Bar Code and the Mark of the Beast