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COURTESY OF ELIZABETH NYAMWANGE (ELIZABETH NYAMWANGE); SHUTTERSTOCK.COM (FINGERPRINT)
TECH INNOVATOR: Elizabeth Nyamwange designed Etana to help women in developing nations.
In the U.S., people can use their birth certificate, driver’s license, or passport to prove who they are. But about 1 billion people worldwide lack official proof of identity. Many are women in low-income countries. Without legal identity, everyday tasks like opening a bank account or buying a cell phone can become impossible.
Sixteen-year-old Elizabeth Nyamwange, who’s originally from Kenya and now lives in Illinois, wanted to find a solution to this problem. She invented Etana, a solar-powered fingerprint scanner. The device creates a digital proof of identity—without requiring access to internet or electricity.
COURTESY OF ELIZABETH NYAMWANGE
IDENTIFICATION DEVICE: Elizabeth Nyamwange has invented Etana, a solar-powered device that scans fingerprints to create digital proof of identity.
The scanner converts each fingerprint into binary code—a unique series of 1’s and 0’s—and uploads it to a secure server. “Etana generates fully anonymous signatures which cannot be hacked, faked, cloned, or stolen,” says Elizabeth. Next, Elizabeth is excited to do a small pilot, or test of her invention, with women from her hometown in Kenya.
Nearly 100 percent of people born in the U.S. have their identities registered at birth. The bar graph below shows the estimated number of people in regions around the world who don’t have any proof of identity. About how many times more people lack proof of identity in sub-Saharan Africa than in Europe and Central Asia?
SOURCE: WORLD BANK