Hollywood loves to use biometrics in spy and thriller movies to help secret agents access places that they are not supposed to enter. The hero walks up to a facial sensor wearing a mask or sporting false fingertips designed to fool fingerprint scanners, and suddenly they are rescuing the world from impending destruction. Biometric locks use your fingerprints, retinas, and voice to identify you as an individual. Using one of these items to protect your valuables from theft is not as far-fetched as you think. Before you purchase your next home safe, consider these two different types of biometric access safes that are available for purchase from your locksmith.

Fingerprint Safe

Whether you choose a safe that reads only one fingerprint, or one that scans the whole hand, fingerprint safes are popular for both a traditional valuables safe, or as a lock box to store your handguns. If the fingerprint safe appeals to your sense of security, keep these points in mind before choosing one:

• Choose a safe with a time lockout option. This means that a person can only try to have their fingerprints identified a certain number of times before the safe goes into lockout mode. This will discourage a thief, and they will to move on to an easier target.
• Choose a safe that can hold more than just one fingerprint. This way, you can store fingerprints from each hand so that if one hand sustains damage, such as a cut, the safe can still be accessed using the other hand.

If you're concerned about thieves that may have seen too many spy movies and is now considering chopping off your fingers to access your safe, you may prefer the voice-activated option.

Voice Activated Safe

If you choose a voice activated safe, the first time you use it you will be asked to enter a verbal password. The safe will record this, and store it within its electronic memory. When you wish to access the safe, simply utter the password, and the safe door will open.

The technology behind a voice activated safe is a computer chip will analyse the pitch and tone of your voice as you say the password. If it does not match that on record, access will be denied. The one thing to keep in mind if you choose the voice activated option is to make sure this safe has a backup opening mechanism such as a keypad PIN number, or a hidden key. There is nothing worse than not being able to access your valuables because you have laryngitis and lost your voice!

Biometric safes are one of the best ways to keep your valuables protected because the safe is protected by your uniqueness. Have a chat to your locksmith at places like Ameen's Locksmith about the latest in biometric technology before you purchase your next home safe, as it definitely no longer exists only in movie scripts.