# Retinal Scannes and their use...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/retinal-scannes-and-their-use/182893>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 19, 2003, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/retinal-scannes-and-their-use/182893 "2003-06-19T10:42:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Aro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@Aro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aro)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/retinal-scannes-and-their-use/182893/1 "2003-06-19T10:42:44Z")

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Several questions:[ul]  
[li]Are retinal scanners employed widely in security facilities around the world? Are they effective?[/li][li]Is there any intrinsic reason why, with how the technology works, that someone with the proper clearance has to be alive to ensure the machine recognises their retina pattern?[/li] i.e. can you, say, use the decapitated head of a person with clearance at the scanner without facing any problems?  
[/ul]  
I have no idea why I wish to know this, but, for some reason, I do. Thanks.

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**Author:** ![Boo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@Boo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boo)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/retinal-scannes-and-their-use/182893/2 "2003-06-19T13:37:20Z")

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I live in Charlotte…they are used at Charlotte Douglass Airport. It is/was part of a testing phase the FAA was conducting. They were testing them at other airports as well. That’s really all I can remember from the news reports I saw.