Biometric Safes

While it may look like it is straight out of Star Trek, the biometric safe is starting to be found in many homes in businesses.  Originally only found in military and government locations, the prices of these safes has come down to a point where the average consumer can afford this amazing technology.  Some manufactures will call these units fingerprint safes, but they all work off the same design.

The biometric fingerprint safe works by initially storing your fingerprint in its memory, which is called enrolling new users.  It identifies several critical features of your fingerprint that are unique to you and almost impossible to fake.  When you want to open the unit, you simply put your finger on the reader and the bolts securing the safe door will unlock and you have access.  If your finger was not previously registered or you use the wrong finger, the safe will not open.

You can see how simple these safes are to open and why many consumers are now purchasing them.  No keys to lose, no combination to remember, nothing but your finger.  These safes have also made big movements into gun storage.  A biometrics gun safe can give you access to your defensive weapon in 5-10 seconds.  No fumbling with a combination when you are in a crisis situation.

One question that is often asked is “what happens if the safe does not recognize my fingerprint?  How do I get into it”.  Well, this is not much different than if you forget the combination or lose the key on a tradition safe.  Let’s face it, technology does fail so most manufacturers have built in a secondary way to access your safe.  This is through a key on the side of the box that will manually unlock the safe.  Remember to keep this key in a safe place, well away from the biometric safe.

A second question is how accurate is the biometric reader?  Every manufacturer will vary, but typically a “false acceptance rate”, which is the number of times that an unauthorized user can gain access is less than 0.1%.  This means that once every 1000 tries, someone might get in.  That is low.  The “false rejection rate”, which is the number times the safe does not allow an authorized user can be as high as 1%.  Luckily, you can simply try again to gain access.  A number too much higher and you would be frustrated at not being able to get into the safe.

Biometric safes have made large inroads to the consumer market and will soon overtake electronic locks.