Researchers have created a security system where a person’s heartbeat is their password – offering hope of electronic devices that people can simply pick up to unlock them.
Human heartbeats never quite repeat themselves, and each person’s heartbeat is unique.
Chinese researchers have found a way to identify a person’s beat in an instant and use it as a password.
“Because electrocardiogram signals vary from person to person, they can be used as a new tool for biometric recognition,” say the researchers at the National Chung Hsing University in Taichung, Taiwan.
Lead researcher Chun-Liang Lin used two ECG readings from people’s palms to determine the unique mathematical properties of their heartbeats. They found that the number could be used as a password, and that the system was highly secure.
Previous biometric security systems using fingerprints can sometimes be tricked using photographs.
Lin’s system takes the user’s ECG reading from each palm once, and a key based on that reading is stored and used for all later decryptions.
Lin says the goal is to build the system into devices that can be decrypted and encrypted simply by touching them, New Scientist reports. – Daily Mail