From: Strata Rose Chalup (strata@virtual.net)
Date: Tue Jul 25 2000 - 14:14:52 PDT
-- ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Strata Rose Chalup [strata@knownow.com] | strata@virtual.net, KF6NBZ Director of Network Operations | VirtualNet Consulting KnowNow, Inc [http://www.knownow.com] | http://www.virtual.net/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
attached mail follows:
Forwarded-by: Nev Dull <nev@sleepycat.com> Forwarded-by: Mark Hahn From: qotd-request@geomatics.ucalgary.ca (Quote of the day)
United States Patent #5,878,155 Inventors: Heeter; Thomas W. (55 Lyerly, Houston, TX 77022) March 2, 1999
Method for verifying human identity during electronic sale transactions
Abstract
A method is presented for facilitating sales transactions by electronic media. A bar code or a design is tattooed on an individual. Before the sales transaction can be consummated, the tattoo is scanned with a scanner. Characteristics about the scanned tattoo are compared to characteristics about other tattoos stored on a computer database in order to verify the identity of the buyer. Once verified, the seller may be authorized to debit the buyer's electronic bank account in order to consummate the transaction. The seller's electronic bank account may be similarly updated.
- from the abstract from U.S. Patent # 5,878,155. Look up the patent on the U.S. Patent Office Web site and look at the drawings. (http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html)
[The submitter notes: The second line stops me cold. Doesn't the work in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s count as "prior art"? Bruce Schneier, who pointed this out in his newsletter on security, suggested much older prior art, "Isn't Revelation 13:16-18 prior art?"]
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