Intel (News - Alert) is developing a new method to replace passwords with biometric technology. It would be aimed at such fields as online banking, social networks and e-mail.

Intel has presented a tablet – featuring new software and a biometric sensor – which works by recognizing the user’s palm. It is called “Client Based Authentication Technology.”

"The problem with passwords – we use too many of them, their rules are complex, and they differ for different websites," Sridhar Iyengar, director of security research at Intel Labs, was quoted at the Intel Developer Forum, by CRN. "There is a way out of it, and biometrics is an option."

The new technology is better than finger-print scanners now used on laptops, Intel claimed.

Laptops, tablets and smartphones would be used to identify users under the Intel concept. Accelerometers would detect if the user puts the device down. Unauthorized users would not be able to use the device.

“The main component of the solution is its trusted identity manager (TIM), which resides within a hardware-based secure container on a user’s system,” according to a review by BiometricUpdate. “The TIM asserts the user’s authentication to local and remote service providers without releasing the user’s credentials. In addition, the TIM non-intrusively monitors the user’s physical presence and locks the system if the user leaves.”

Other biometric identification devices are already in common use, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. For example, MorphoTrak has deployed MorphoBIS, an automated Biometric Identification System, for the New York City Police Department. The system has ten-print and latent matching, matching of palm prints and mobile two-finger searches. There is also lights-out processing to find potential hits for verification by NYPD fingerprint technicians, according to TMCnet.

During the recent forum, Intel also demonstrated prototypes to improve cell-phone base stations and to wirelessly connect printers, tablets and monitors, CRN said.

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