A method and apparatus for authenticating an individual living organism by recognizing
a unique internal electric and/or magnetic and/or acoustic characteristic, which
comprises a biometric signature, involve presenting a body part to a sensing device
that senses the signature. The sensed presented biometric signature is compared
to a known biometric signature to authenticate the individual. This authentication
can then be used to authorize any of a wide variety of actions by the individual,
such as accessing equipment or an area, or to perform actions, such as conducting
financial transactions. A card having sensors is used to sense the biometric signature
which is read by a card reader and sent to a local or remote reader for biometric
signature comparison.
