New sensors could replace passwords with palm scanning

Intel has demonstrated new technology that could see passwords replaced with a wave of the hand.

A biometric sensor in a laptop or tablet computer scans the unique pattern of veins in a person's palm to verify their identity.

The technology, developed by Intel, could do away with the multiple passwords most people use for websites.

Speaking at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco last week, Sridhar Iyengar, director of research at Intel Labs said: "The problem with passwords -- we use too many of them, their rules are complex, and they differ for different websites. There is a way out of it, and biometrics is an option."

The technology is still under development but would require new biometric sensors to be built into computers. An accelerometer could be used to monitor when someone put the gadget down and automatically lock it to prevent unauthorised access.

Iyengar said that the palm scanning technology worked much better than the finger-print scanners used on some laptops today.