A group of ICT students from Uganda’s Makerere University have come up with a way to make stealing your car a task by working out a way to start cars with fingerprints rather than car keys.
The innovation, named Kuwanza Gari ( Swahili word for , start a car) was worked on by 9 students namely, Ernest Ojakol, Michael Mawejje, Mark Musinguzi, Sheila Ankunda, Dominic Walusimbi, Nicholas Kayola, Anxious Ainebyona and Joseph Kitamirike and David Tusubira, from the School of Computing and Informatics Technology. New vision reported.
How the system works is that the owner places his or her fingerprints in the system, the prints are then stored on the fingerprints module. The module has two buttons; the adding of prints and another for erasing the prints.
These buttons are important in the case the owner wants to allow more than one driver for his/her car since the system can take up to five fingerprints or he/she wants to sell the car then they can erase their prints from the module.
According to Ainebyona one of the creators says that the device has a Global System for Mobile module that sends a message to the owner’s mobile phone if an unauthorized person tries to start the car.
Tusubira says though the fingerprint ignition is but a prototype they hope to make and sell them to car companies and organizations that have fleets of cars. This is according to new vision.
Musinguzi says the fingerprint ignition system also has an LCD screen that gives you feedback of the options: deleting, adding, starting the car or errors if a fingerprints is not in the system.
Currently the system is powered by a laptop, which does not provide enough power but the team plans to create a connection to the car battery’s power.
Dr. Julianne Sansa-Otim, the acting head of the Department of Networks at the School of Computing and Informatics Technology, says the innovation was part of the team’s final project.
The project is a requirement for the completion of the Software Engineering programme. All students are supposed to investigate a problem and solve it using technology.
The University has promised to help the students acquire intellectual property rights and also recommend the students to people who can fund their proposal
