Toronto, Ontario — Ford Motor Company has filed a patent application for an identification system in mounted puddle lamps capable of reading a driver’s vein pattern for vehicle access.
The patent application, originally filed in 2022 and then published on April 18th, describes how a puddle lamp mounted to the side mirrors of the vehicle would include “a palm image sensor to detect a palm vein pattern illuminated by near-infrared light and reflected from a user’s palm.”
Specifically, the driver’s palm ID would be stored in a memory processor in the vehicle which would, according to the patent, then “store instructions executable by the process to receive a palm vein pattern of a user from the palm image sensor, access a profile of the user containing at least one reference vein pattern, (and then) compare the palm vein pattern.”
From here, the vehicle would use the driver’s palm vein pattern to perform a variety of actions, from unlocking the vehicle to adjusting the cabin temperature to user preference.
The patent further describes how “a seat preference may be associated with the reference vein pattern. The system may include instructions to set a seat position of the vehicle to the seat preference upon authentication of the user.”
Ultimately, while there is no guarantee that this patent design will ever make it to a manufacturing stage, with vehicle theft on the rise, the use of biometric technology is perhaps one suggestion for future vehicle protection.
To read the full patent application, click the link below.
