Distorting face can stop theft of biometric ID

A trick reminiscent of a fun-house mirror might improve the security and privacy of the identification technology that examines fingerprints, facial features or other personal characteristics.

In such systems, known as biometrics, a computer generally reduces an image to a template of "minutiae points" -- notable features such as a loop in a fingerprint or the position of an eye. Those points are converted to a numeric string by a mathematical algorithm, then stored for later analysis.