Dynamic signature verification using your own pen

Authentication of identity using the dynamic features of a person´s handwritten signature is not widely practiced, because the apparatus requires a special wired pen or an expensive tablet. It is shown that principles of frustrated total internal reflection can be used as the basis for a device with a solid glass writing substrate permitting the use of one´s own pen. A glass prism with its hypotenuse surface is viewed from below by a TV camera that registers the shape and dynamic features of the signature. Other hardware approaches such as piezoelectric writing tablets are also being investigated