Close Encounters....3rd Kind....biometrics

So....I was watching Close Encounters of the 3rd kind tonight. I noticed something odd.....they use biometrics in it. It was made in 1977. The first "biometric" scan was for hand geometry....it was conceived in 1974.

How would a movie production get knowledge/access to that, that quickly? They had to.have started filming well before the release.

Any thoughts?

That device looks to be the IDentimat 2000 (very futuristic sounding) that was public knowledge as early as 1971. It was manufactured by Stellar Systems Inc. of San Jose, and provided identification verification by electronically scanning an individual's hand and comparing the data with a known scan stored in the machine's memory. Using a light source, the device precisely measures the geometric characteristics of finger length, curvature and thickness of the webbing between fingers when the hand is place on a flat plate.


Side note: This is also the hand scanner that Bob Lazar describes in the documentary "Bob Lazar: Area 51 & Flying Saucers". In the documentary and countless interviews, Bob describes this exact device but says that the technology was never made public and he had never seen a device like it anywhere else. Bob supposedly worked at S-4 in the 80's and this hand scanner was in use since the early 70's. Hmmm.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

So I didn't verify anything, but sounds like it was around a few years before the movie release. I would assume, beig SciFi, it just as easily could have been the origin for the concept. If I recall correctly, reusable launchers for space travel were in the movie GATTACA when Elon Musk was still processing ePayments.

A working theory I hold about art/story telling/tech like that is that it’s less intentional and more accidental or “natural” - that creativity taps into something unseen that already exists out there.... and as these things surface....knowledge I guess we should call it.... those with the ability to tap into it could either write what they believe is a completely fictional story about it, compose lyrics to a song, based on intuition/empathic sensations, or in the case of scientists/researchers create the technology itself.

Maybe it happens around the same time because it’s surfacing and many are catching it in different ways.

Did you ever consider the possibility that the CE3 device was just a movie prop?

I doubt it was real. Probably a prop that was made in house to resemble whatever was available at the time.

It’d be cheaper than buying a real one.

I thought Spielberg was let in on some alien encounters from official "people" in the know to make the film more realistic. As the film is supposed to be an analogy of a real "official" encounters.

Quick search...

Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is seeking an experience Program ... range of passwords and combinations, and various biometric devices.