Earlier this year we found out that Arizona police officers were undergoing significant training on smartphones and applications. Hackers uncovered the private information, which depicted a police department frantically trying to keep up with the times.
Now it looks like members of law enforcement are going to get a little more hands-on with the technology. Cult of Mac is reporting that mobileOne, an iPhone fingerprint-reading accessory, will be among devices that undergo trials by the FBI next year…
The mobileOne slips over an iPhone or iPod touch and turns the device into a full-blown biometric reader. Not only will it be able to capture high quality fingerprints, but using the device’s Wi-Fi, it will be able to quickly scan national databases for matches.
As you can imagine, time and portability mean everything to officers in the field. Being able to carry a device in your coat pocket that can scan and match fingerprints within minutes is a huge improvement over taking a suspect back to the station and doing it there.
We’ve talked a lot about the versatility of the iPad and the many industries it’s changed, but the iPhone is also a chameleon. Thanks to its accessory port, it can do anything from accepting payments, to scanning barcodes, to now reading and matching fingerprints.