School adopts fingerprint system for student meals

Fingerprint recognition systems and mathematical algorithms may sound like something from a hi-tech spy film. But for pupils at a Lowestoft school, they are to become simply part of the daily routine of ordering their school dinners. The new technology is part of a “cashless catering” drive, giving students the opportunity to pay on account and avoid the daily scramble for dinner money. From July 3, Kirkley High School will use biometric fingerprinting to identify each of the school's 1300 pupils when they make their food orders. Once pupils' digits have been scanned, canteen staff will have instant access to their account which will be pre-paid by their parents, or topped up at “reval” machines in the school. Parents will be able to control the amount of money available and even place conditions on what kind of food their children should be eating. Yesterday, pupils from years nine, 10 and 12 had their right index fingers scanned, and saw their fingerprints converted into a mathematical algorithm to be stored on the system. The school's IT manager, Toby Hacker, said: “The scan plots up to 45 points on the fingerprint, then turns them into a long, unique number, like a barcode.
“Only this number will be stored, not the image itself, so there can be no worry of anyone passing fingerprint information on. “We believe we're one of the first schools in this area to use this technology.” The system will also allow parents to monitor the food choices of their children through a database stored in the computer's memory.