As I browsed through the results of my internet search on "Biometrics" for a second my mind drifted away. For that brief moment in time I was again the inquisitive 12 year old in the backyard of my parents home. The world seemed wonderful and exciting. There was so much to learn and understand, so many unexplored avenues. Information even at that age was my passion. I wanted to know about everything.
An old refrigerator had made its way to one of the corners of the yard. It lay there awaiting the trip to the rubbish dump. In retrospect I realize how each individual saw the old battered fridge in a different way. To my mother it was of inherent danger. She had read many newspaper articles of children that had died while playing inside these old fridges.
My grandfather eyed it with anticipation. The promise of a part that could be salvaged and used in one or another of his home made inventions, drew him closer with his old worn and battered toolbox, like a vulture to a carcass.
My father looked at it and saw a possible "storage cupboard" much needed in a garage that has become almost unmanageable.
Sitting under the shade of our peach tree, I looked at the fridge from a distance, remembering my mother`s threats if she should catch me near it. I saw the soft white rounded edges of the door sealing onto the main body in perfect unity. The handle had been designed in such a fashion that the rounded chrome shapes complimented the design of the rest of the body. The brand name stood bold and proud on the oval chrome badge. It proudly declared to the world whom the manufacturers were. As I sat there admiring this beauty, I saw it. This was my very own spaceship. I could see myself opening the hatch with the beautiful chrome handle. I would be exploring the galaxy in no time. I would be going places where no man had gone before. This would be my enterprise.
From this experience as a child I learned something that still remains a truth to this day. Each one of us looked at the refrigerator and saw a different "Future" for it and ourselves. We all expressed our views to each other and finally each one of us walked away with some part of his or her view manifested.
Mother reluctantly allowed me to play in my space ship provided that my granddad removed the back cover. This meant that I could not be trapped on the inside as I could climb through the back. Dad removed the shelves and the drawers and used these in the garage for storage. Grandfather used the compressor in one of his homemade inventions.
The reason my mind slipped back to that particular incident in my childhood lies in the following fact; as biometrics and their various applications become part of our everyday lives people from all walks of life will look upon it with different reactions, just like the members of my family looked at the refrigerator with different reactions. The CEO of a large corporation looking for an accurate solution for his time and attendance problem will see it completely different to the uneducated tribal lady in rural Kwa-Zulu Natal that has to verify her identity via fingerprint scanning in order to receive her pension payment from the government.
How did I react to the knowledge the first time I read about it? I remember thinking about a lot of different things. The images of people using fingerprint scanners in science fiction movies blurred across my mind. Retina scans at the front desks of corporations, fingerprint scanners verifying identities at ATM`s, fingerprint ignitions in the latest cars, homes fitted with scanners at the front doors, these are only a few of the immediate images I can recall.
Many questions born from the unknown also reared their ugly heads. Would this be the ultimate step in the "big brother" theory? Are we all doomed to be part of a universal database of biometric information? Would our privacy be lost forever? Would government be able to track our every movement? These are just a few questions that sprang to mind. The answers are not at all easy or simple. Just like the questions we all asked when the internet became part of our lives, remember what was said about emails and the cell phone?
One thing all of them had in common was the fact that it could be used to enhance our lives. I came to realize that biometrics is the new wave of technology that will change the world that we live in.
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