Australia, July 29: IF YOU like the sound of your iPod and mobile phone being theft-proof, listen up.
Scientists have found a way of using the “acoustic fingerprint” of a person’s ear to ensure no one else can operate their iPods, mobile phones and other personal portables.
The technology can be extended to protect bank accounts and passports.
Overseas researchers have discovered they can identify individuals from the unique sounds of the ear chamber.
They sent a barely audible tone using an earphone that stimulates the hair cells beyond the inner ear into producing a minute sound of their own.
The sound is given a unique “fingerprint” by an individual’s eardrum, ear bones and the shape of their ear canal.
This biometric “pin number” would be instantly detected by an iPod, mobile phone or any other device fitted with an anti-theft acoustic fingerprint detector.
Acoustic fingerprints could be used to pay bills, or do banking transactions securely with confirmation of identity as easy as donning a set of headphones or putting a phone to your ear.
@Interesting, unfortunately, It will severely limit the choice of headphones, an in ear micorphone is required. A beneifit is it would allow integrated noise cancelling
Electronics engineer, Arthur Rapos of the Elektra company, believes biometric mapping will eventually lead to microchip implants in humans.
“The sound the inside of our ear makes is not the only unique thing about an individual. Think of a tree where no two leaves are the same,” Mr Rapos says.
“It’s the same principle with the human body that has hundreds of features unique to an individual.”
“It isn’t a flight of fancy to imagine someone being implanted with a removable microchip that records that person’s unique biological features before travelling overseas.”
—Agencies