The days of simply showing student ID cards to attendants at Middle Tennessee State University’s rec center are over. Under a new ID card program aimed at higher security, upwards of 23,000 MTSU students are required to trade in their current ID cards, which simply had magnetic stripes, for new Blue ID Cards, which enable biometric featuers in order to ensure higher security.

Hand geometry technology is the basis of the new Blue ID Card, which takes a scan of the outline of the hand and stores it in a database. When a student enters the MTSU gym with a new Blue ID card, they will first place their hand on a special biometrics-enabled reader that can perform a hand scan and match it to a preexisting file. After the scan is completed, the student will then have to enter the last four digits of their student ID number. Along with being a more effective way of identifying students, it will also prevent card sharing, where students or unauthorized visitors would borrow a friend’s card to use the facilities (a common problem before the implementation of this new ID card program