New Biometric Technology Uses Your Skull as the Password

Posted on May 12, 2016

A new biometric security technology uses your skull to allow you access. Computer scientists from the University of Saarland and the University of Stuttgart are introducing the skull as a new biometric identifier. The technology dubbed SkullConduct can be used with smart eyewear computers, such as Google Glass.

The biometic system measures bone conduction of sound through the user's skull using an integrated bound conduction speaker. The sound can be recorded with the existing microphone on the eyewear computer. The researchers say its method can identify users with 97% accuracy. The researchers note that these tests were conducted in a room with no background noise.

Andreas Bulling from Saarland University, says in a statement, "Because the skull is individual, the sound signal is changed in a way which is unique for every person. Hence, we can use it as a biometric identifier."

The researchers say the system will store the skull sound data after recording it with the Google Glass microphone. The biometric security process would begin immediately when a user put on smart glasses. The signal echoes through the skull and the microphone picks it up. If the current audio skull fingerprint matches the stored one, the person gets access to the computer eyewear. The researchers plan to test to see if it could also work with ultrasound and also imagine their system being used by smartphones.

Bulling says, "If the smartphone has a correspondingly placed bone conduction speaker and a microphone, and the user presses it with bone contact to his skull, it could possibly work even with the normal ringtone of the smartphone."

A research paper on the study was published here.

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