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"We follow the scientists around and look over their shoulders."
- Larry Niven
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| Portable Ident-Plate | ||
| A small, thin device that will capture biometric data from a person's finger. |
I think this is a pretty good prediction of an item that is commonplace today.
| He took out his wallet and aimed its lens first at Spivey and then at the man's glowing credential. Quickly he dialed the private security service he used for such things and pressed his thumb to the ident-plate. In three seconds the tiny screen flashed a terse confirmation. |
| From Earth,
by David Brin. Published by Bantam in 1990 Additional resources -
|
These are now available on a variety of laptop computers and even small, pocket-sized PDAs.
Take a look at this tiny USB key with a fingerprint reader; the CR-FP2 and CR-FP3 USB keys have a sensor with a with what is described as 1/10000000 precision. The CR-FP3 has 512MB of memory and weights 11g.
(Elecom USB with fingerprint reader)
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Then some unknown race had chanced upon the dreamers and decided to 'help them out.'
'... you had your trademark Lucky Dragon Global Interactive Video Column outside.'
'It's an Indian Air Force drone; its solar cells could power an entire farm.'
'... we were supposed to be forming five unit composites first."
'We send our eyes on their appointed rounds, and they can hover or soar or back up...'
'Light from the sun hit those little spheres and bounced.'
'... the two pairs of waldoes in the screen followed in exact, simultaneous parallelism.'
