Patent ID: 7642894

Claim:
A personal identification apparatus for measuring tactile pressures exerted by a person's hand and indicative of his identity, comprising: a pressure plate having a template of a human hand including a palm area and a plurality of elongated finger areas; a plurality of pressure sensors distributed on said plate and within said template such that a first group of said plurality of pressure sensors is positioned within said plurality of finger areas, each of the pressure sensors being operative to provide an output signal proportional to a pressure applied to said plate at the area at which said sensor is located, to enable said sensors to provide said output when a person's hand is emplaced on said plate to exert a pressure on said plate, wherein a number of sensors in an arrangement of sensors in said first group of pressure sensors is dependent upon a position of said arrangement at sensors within a corresponding finger area; storage means for storing pressure profile signals of enrolled persons requiring identification, and means for comparing said stored pressure profile with said output pressure signals to provide a favorable comparison when said output signals conform to said stored profile signals for positively identifying said person.