this is scary

what better way to get them used to being scanned... this is probably fairly innocent..BUT what else is out there?

Pilot program at Fort Crawford scans students' fingers to access accounts
Buzz up!By Liz Hayes, VALLEY NEWS DISPATCH
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Last updated: 7:32 am

Fort Crawford Elementary School students no longer need to worry about losing lunch money or forgetting an access code.

All they need to order a meal is their finger.

The school recently installed a lunchroom device that scans children's fingers and uses the scans to access personalized lunch accounts.

The district was using a computerized system to manage student lunch accounts, said Kelly Patterson, New Kensington-Arnold's food service coordinator from Nutrition Group. Students used a six-digit personal identification number to access their accounts and deduct money when buying lunch.

However, Patterson said some of the younger students have difficulty remembering their PINs.

Within the last month, the district installed the scanning software at Fort Crawford as a pilot program.

Although the device scans fingers, Patterson said it is reading biometric measurements, not fingerprints.

After an initial scan, the device determines measurements unique to each child.

"There's no way to generate or retrieve fingerprints," Patterson said.

Jim Russell, a Frazer resident who does not have children in New Kensington-Arnold but does own property there, said he worries the finger scans can be used to identify students accused of crimes.

Even if it's not a true fingerprint, "It's still an electronic fingerprint, isn't it?" Russell questioned.

Patterson said the district has no intention of using the scans for anything other than lunch accounts.

In fact, if the district implements the devices in all schools, current elementary-age children could need to be rescanned as their fingers grow and the dimensions change.

"It's very high-tech," Patterson said. "It's one of the up-and-coming technologies."

The system, designed by School-Link Technologies, eventually will allow parents to view their child's lunch accounts online. They'll be able to see what the child ordered, how much they spent and load more money onto the account.

Patterson said the system helps the district keep track of a student's account status, which is especially helpful at Fort Crawford where 85 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. Fort Crawford serves an average of almost 200 lunches a day, Patterson said.

The system also helps minimize the possibility of people overhearing which students qualify for reduced lunches.

"We can't overtly identify the status of the children," Patterson said.

Patterson said they started scanning and inputting student finger scans in late October after parental permission was given. Parents can opt out of scanning; students also can continue to use PINs.

The scanning device, which is 93 percent accurate, cost about $400, Patterson said.

"We've received a pretty positive response," she said.

So positive, the devices likely will be implemented in other schools by the end of the school year.

"The lunchroom has come a long way," Patterson said.

this is how it starts with the look no cash required then it gets used for other things which is its original intention.watch the scans get turned over down the line to solve some horrific crime for the good of the public and then presto magtnifico they now have the start of their biometric file on the parents kids next up DNA samples would you kindly be willing to provide one of those also?

I am sure I remember seeing a film decades ago about the government putting some sort of chips in people's wrists and if they did not have the code to scan with all the details on them so the government could track them then they were arrested.

This has obviously been an ongoing project of theirs for decades. ?