Now people are using fingerprint scanners for EFTPOS and credit cards. This shows how far the technology here has progressed as no one even a few years ago would suggest serious this.
In practice, I have found fingerprint scanners in point of sale quick and easy to use. What has turned out to be very handy with these scanners, is in the morning when a shop is dark, you can use a fingerprint scanner much easier than using a key or punching in numbers and codes. From what I have seen in most places they work really well but there are a few places that report problems, and these are not minor problems.
The actual error rate of a good-quality scanner is generally quoted at about 1 in 50,000. In a shop used by staff who are doing 300 transactions a day, that would be one error in three months, which would probably be acceptable.
Several credible experts do say that they can crack many of these fingerprint scanners. I tested ours with some of their suggestions on our fingerprint scanners like putting my fingerprints on sticky tape and could not fool our scanners. So I want more proof on this but anyone wanting such scanners should be aware of this. So I would suggest that currently do not use it outside the shop but inside where you can monitor it.
In practice, people do need to get used to it. They have to learn to move their finger not too fast and not too slow. Their fingers have to be clean and dry, water even damp fingers from sweat can cause problems in reading the fingerprints. So I do suggest registering a few fingers because sometimes, one finger does not work.
Furthermore, the sensor needs to be clean as well. So I suggest people keep a dry microfiber cloth nearby the scanner.
Moreover, these scanners need to be sturdy, in a shop they will take over many years a lot of punishment. People will while scanning items, hit it. I have seen some smashed scanners when they were hit too hard. Some have spilt coffee over them.
Some will, for some reason, stop working, generally this can be fixed by simply pulling the cable out, waiting a bit and putting it back in. It does not happen much but if it does happen, then this is what you have to know to do.
A problem that you may get is that scanners do get superseded and support stops. Often a change in windows version can cause problems too. A client of ours went from Windows 7 to Windows 10, and we could not get a driver for their fingerprint scanner that worked.
Overall, I think where fingerprint scanners are very good is for internal security, say staff members in a SMB. If you want to know more, click here for a post with many more details.
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