August 14, 2005
I Spy...
"What is it?" you ask? It's part of my retina. I had an eye exam on Friday, and there's a cool new technology that lets them image the back of your eye without having to dilate your pupils. It's called an OptoMap, and it takes just a few seconds. It's not covered by insurance, but it's not too expensive.
Given that I have to worry about glaucoma (and that my only other retinal scan, done with pupil dilation, is still back in Massachusetts), I decided it was worth it to get a baseline image for future reference. And the doctor was kind enough to give me the images (originally almost 4 megapixels) on a CD to take home.
And yes, that bright part in the middle is the optic nerve, heading off to my brain.
Posted by Tom Nugent at August 14, 2005 02:38 PMYEESH! Now every Tom, Dick, and Harry on Earth can duplicate this for a retinal scan. Why don't you just give out all your passwords, credit card numbers, and bank account information!
Posted by: Tom at August 14, 2005 06:22 PMthere's a cool new technology that lets them image the back of your eye without having to dilate your pupils.
The downside being you don't get those dorky yet cool 'blind man' temporary sunglasses. Sad. The highlight of my 'visit the eye doctor' day in elementary school was wearing those around all day.
Posted by: Brian at August 14, 2005 07:51 PMTom wrote: "Why don't you just give out all your passwords, credit card numbers, and bank account information!"
Because I'm not a nuclear power plant operator. To date, it's mostly only extremely secure areas that use retinal scans. And it's my understanding that the image I posted is not nearly detailed enough to reproduce for security reasons, even if anyone had come up with a way to spoof retinal scanners.
BTW, do you wear latex gloves everywhere you go, and wipe all surfaces you touch with your bare hands? If not, aren't you making it easy for criminals to use your fingerprints?!? ;-)
Posted by: Tom Nugent at August 14, 2005 10:21 PMYes, tody you don't need it, but in a few years, you're going to waltz into the bank, and find out all of the money is gone because some forward thinking 15 year old who spends all of his time blogging and reading "Harry Potter" downloaded your retina, enhanced it with advanced picture enhancing software, and walked out with all of the cash....and the bannk will not give refund because there is no way anyone would post a picture of their retina on the internet for the world to see, download and use.
And for the record, I don't wear gloves because I do wipe all surfaces I touch!
So, nyah ;-P
Posted by: Tom at August 15, 2005 01:15 PM