The system uses low-level Doppler radar to measure your heart, and then continually monitors your heart to make sure no one else has stepped in to run your computer. Credit: Bob Wilder/University at Buffalo.
A new non-contact, remote biometric tool could be the next advance in computer security
Forget fingerprint computer identification or retinal scanning. A University at Buffalo-led team has developed a computer security system using the dimensions of your heart as your identifier.
The system uses low-level Doppler radar to measure your heart, and then continually monitors your heart to make sure no one else has stepped in to run your computer.
The technology is described in a paper that the inventors will present at next month’s 23rd Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Communication (MobiCom) in Utah. The system is a safe and potentially more effective alternative to passwords and other biometric identifiers, they say. It may eventually be used for smartphones and at airport screening barricades.
“We would like to use it for every computer because everyone needs privacy,” said Wenyao Xu, PhD, the study’s lead author, and an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering in UB’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
“Logging-in and logging-out are tedious,” he said.
The signal strength of the system’s radar “is much less than Wi-Fi,” and therefore does not pose any health threat, Xu said.
“We are living in a Wi-Fi surrounding environment every day, and the new system is as safe as those Wi-Fi devices,” he said. “The reader is about 5 milliwatts, even less than 1 percent of the radiation from our smartphones.”
The system needs about 8 seconds to scan a heart the first time, and thereafter the monitor can continuously recognize that heart.
The system, which was three years in the making, uses the geometry of the heart, its shape and size, and how it moves to make an identification. “No two people with identical hearts have ever been found,” Xu said. And people’s hearts do not change shape, unless they suffer from serious heart disease, he said.
Heart-based biometrics systems have been used for almost a decade, primarily with electrodes measuring electrocardiogram signals, “but no one has done a non-contact remote device to characterize our hearts’ geometry traits for identification,” he said.
The new system has several advantages over current biometric tools, like fingerprints and retinal scans, Xu said. First, it is a passive, non-contact device, so users are not bothered with authenticating themselves whenever they log-in. And second, it monitors users constantly. This means the computer will not operate if a different person is in front of it. Therefore, people do not have to remember to log-off when away from their computers.
Xu plans to miniaturize the system and have it installed onto the corners of computer keyboards. The system could also be used for user identification on cell phones. For airport identification, a device could monitor a person up to 30 meters away.
Learn more: Goodbye, login. Hello, heart scan
The Latest on: Biometric security
- U.S. Homeland Security Wants to Scan the Face of All Travelerson December 7, 2019 at 7:10 pm
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is set to propose regulations next July that would require ... “Travelers, including U.S. citizens, should not have to submit to invasive biometric scans ...
- AI and biometrics could boost e-commerce confidence in LatAmon December 6, 2019 at 7:55 am
Improving knowledge about technologies such as artificial intelligence and biometrics could help address consumer concerns over e-commerce security in Latin America, according to a new study.
- Department of Homeland Security drops plan to require facial scans for citizens entering or leaving USon December 6, 2019 at 3:16 am
CBP officials said the agency had initially considered including U.S. citizens as part of its biometric entry-exit programs because of concerns that a separate screening process would create ...
- Online age verification will have to involve biometrics: Former eSafety chiefon December 5, 2019 at 7:06 pm
"I think biometrics -- with all of the problems associated with biometrics ... "And I think we see the consequences of that market failure today in a whole range of things, whether it's online safety, ...
- Homeland Security doesn’t want Americans' airport face scans after allon December 5, 2019 at 12:44 pm
The ACLU, which spoke out against plans to conduct biometric scans on US citizens, is still concerned. In a statement, ACLU Senior Policy Analyst Jay Stanley said: "The Department of Homeland Security ...
- SmartMetric Biometric Credit Cards Says That Card Fraud Losses Continue to Rise to Over $27 Billionon December 5, 2019 at 7:29 am
Consumer research commissioned by SmartMetric shows that nearly 60% of existing credit card users would pay for a credit card that has built-in-the-card biometric security. The research shows that the ...
- Deep Dive: The Fight To Stop Biometric Spoofingon December 5, 2019 at 7:14 am
Biometric authentication is one of the hottest trends in the digital ID space. Users demand both ironclad security and seamless login experiences, and biometrics are being incorporated into hardware ...
- Global Voice Biometrics Market Report, 2019-2024 - Security Concerns Pertaining to Third Party (Cloud) Data Storage Hampers Growthon December 4, 2019 at 4:41 pm
Though the voice recognition technology can be used independently many solutions are combining voice recognition with other biometric solutions to provide better security in both private and ...
- Smashing Security #157: A biometric knuckle dusteron December 4, 2019 at 4:22 pm
And did a hacker impersonate a music producer? Plus we have a bonus feature interview with Rachael Stockton from Logmein, the folks behind LastPass, all about behavioral biometrics! All this and much ...
- Biometric Security is Making Passwords Passéon December 4, 2019 at 2:21 am
Biometric security used to be the provenance of spy movies. Someone would sidle up to a secret entrance, scan their eyeball, and slide through a door. Now, nearly everyone with a new smartphone can ...
via Google News and Bing News