Fingerprint security? Ha! Maybe that’s fine for those of you wearing zebra pants and slap bracelets. At Giz, we only endorse finger vein security (publicly, because privately we’d rely on nothing short of full colonoscopic verification). Sony’s FVA-U1, going on sale December 18 in Japan, will be the smallest finger vein reader on the market conveniently operating over USB. [ AkihabaraNews ]

Are you paranoid that your lover uses a lookalike stunt double on occasion? That her twin sister shows up instead of her? With the fingerprint ring , you can just compare fingerprints and know when it’s the real thing. All you do is get a kit, imprint your lover’s (or even your own) fingers, send it off, and get a custom fingerprint ring in your choice of metals. The message the maker of these trinkets wants to send is that “your lover touching you, holding your finger, always with you,” but all I’m hearing is “make sure it’s not her sister…make sure it’s not her sister!” [ Etsy via Make ]

MacRumors found three interesting patents that point to various new interaction techniques. The most interesting is the fingerprint ID directly on the screen so that the iPhone can see which finger you’re using and accept gestures appropriately. The fingerprint ID also, of course, can theoretically act as a security device so that only you can activate your phone. There’s also haptic (physical) feedback when you’re hitting things, as well as using the touchscreen as an RFID reader. None of the three are really mindblowing in themselves, on the surface, but if implemented intelligently might make for a big step forward in the iPhone product line.

Alright, so you know the drill by now. A patent application doesn’t necessarily mean an actual product is on the way — but it’s always fun to speculate, right? And this latest trio of applications from Apple certainly provides plenty of speculation fodder. The most notable of the lot is an application for a “multi-touch display screen with localized tactile feedback,” which Apple seems to be at least considering as a possibility for the iPhone (or iPod touch). Like some similar systems, Apple’s application covers a screen that uses a grid of piezoelectric actuators that can be activated at will to provide vibrational feedback when you touch the screen

We were teased with a shot of the kinetically-powered Ulysse Nardin Chairman smartphone earlier this month , but now the wraps are off—and what we are left with is truly one unique device. Known for their watchmaking, the Ulysse Nardin has the mechanical intricacy you would expect along with a 2.8-inch multitouch screen, 5-megapixel camera, biometric fingerprint unlocking, WiFi and an email browser. It also sucks supplemental power into the battery by harvesting kinetic energy from the revolving rotor on the back. The phone is currently on display at the Baselworld watch and jewelery expo and will be available, I’m assuming, sometime in the near future for a completely absurd price. [ Uncells ]

It’s been a hot minute since we heard anything from General Dynamics in the toughbook department, so it’s good to see the company come back with a product that really raises the bar. The Itronix GD8000 sports an Intel Core 2 Duo SL9400 processor, 4GB of memory, integrated GMA 4500MHD graphics, 120GB storage, and a 13.3-inch DynaVue sunlight-readable touchscreen display. But that ain’t all! This bad boy also features integrated GPS, WiFi, a biometric fingerprint reader, a smartcard reader, and an integrated Gobi 2000 WWAN module. Bluetooth is optional. As far as the toughness goes, with its magnesium chassis and polycarbonate case this bad boy meets MIL-STD 810F standards, able to withstand a drop from 42 inches, 30 gallons of water at 40 mph, and operates in temperatures anywhere from -22

What you see here is an 8.5×11 piece of paper scanned by an ordinary scanner (with the contrast bumped up). From shots like this one, researchers claim they can “fingerprint” any piece of paper. The complete method is explained in the paper Fingerprinting Blank Paper Using Commodity Scanners . Here’s the abstract: This paper presents a novel technique for authenticating physical documents based on random, naturally occurring imperfections in paper texture. We introduce a new method for measuring the three-dimensional surface of a page using only a commodity scanner and without modifying the document in any way.