Tattoo Reader

Posted on June 22, 2008

With the prevalent problem of identity theft, there is an increasing need to find other ways to identify people. Normal identification such as drivers’ licenses, social security cards, etc. are easily lost or stolen not to mention being forged.

It’s not always easy, especially for the police, to identify their victims or suspects. They spend a lot of time trying to ID people who are deceased or suspects who have been arrested but who have no identification and won’t tell who they are.

One effort that is being made is using an automatic image retrieval system. By developing an image database of scars, tattoos, and other identifying marks on a person, links to identity can often be made very quickly. Approximately 20% of the population now have tattoos and seemingly most delinquents have them so they have the potential to become a high profile means of identity even without any paper ID.

Which leads me to the other area of ID’ing people and that’s through an RFID chip. When I was young, you were required to get a Social Security number when you started your first job. Now you have to get one for a child when they are born. Seems the next logical step will be doing a simple implant (which can be done by injection) of a chip which has the SS number on it along, perhaps, with other vital information.

As much fear as this puts in us of governmental control, it may not be as outlandish today with the current state of society. At least we would immediately be able to determine if someone is practicing identity theft and there would never be any mix-ups of identity just on the basis of looks.

I’m sure if that happens there will be an immediate aftermarket chip reader available at Wal-Mart just like for your car’s computer. And that’s not all bad either. At my age I could use a little help. So when I see somebody and say to myself ‘I should know them’, I can do a quick, unobserved, scan and say ‘Hey, aren’t you Joe?’ ‘I thought I recognized you!’