Patent US 5,408,536

A system and method are provided for enabling and recording operations relating to machines such as computers. In particular, the invention involves electronic means for sensing or scanning one or more physical characteristics of a person or persons about to enter and/or receive data from a computer and generating signals indicative of such physical characteristic(s), which signals are automatically analyzed and compared with signals stored in a memory to generate enabling signals for enabling the operation of the machine. In a particular form of the invention, both the presence of a person at a computer terminal and an identifying characteristic of such person are sensed and used to enable the operation of the machine and the entry and retrieval of data.