Hitachi tends to have their fingers in just about every branch of technology imaginable, and apparently they are well versed in fingerprint readers too. They have just announced a new fingerprint reader design that is a mere 3mm thick, down from a “massive” 23.5mm.

The new design is made possible thanks to a new arrangement of several lenses used to scan the vein patterns in your finger, whereas a single lens was used before and as you would expect with any lens, required some distance between the lens and object to properly record. Hitachi hopes to have this new design in market around 2011 and is targeting mobile consumer devices.

ThinkPad users generally love their fingerprint reader, or FPR for short. My absolute favorite was the one on the ThinkPad tablets, perfectly placed for a convenient thumb swipe. The new FPR on the ThinkPad T400s is a very close tie, as it works the first time almost every time, and I love being able to start the laptop up from sleep or off with just a fingerprint swipe. The LEDs embedded in it are also helpful to know if my swipe was successful.

My least favorite is probably the one on my X61 – it is too close to the center of the palmrest to be convenient and I never seem to get it on the first try. What is your most/least favorite fingerprint reader?