Researchers at the University of Stuttgart, the University of Saarland and the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Germany have developed a new biometric authentication system called 'SkullConduct'. SkullConduct works by analyzing skull vibrations in reaction to an ultrasonic signal. The system plays a one-second long audio clip into the user's head and analyzes the signal after it's traveled through the skull. The team found that the system successfully identified the subjects 97% of the times.
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| SkullConduct uses the bone conduction speaker and microphone readily integrated into the eyewear computer and analyses the characteristic frequency response of an audio signal sent through the user’s skull. |
All mobile companies are now trying to integrate fingerprint readers and iris scanners in their devices, for authenticating people. The next big thing in biometrics might lie under our skin. Researchers are working on SkullConduct, an authentication system that uses a bone conduction speaker and mic on your head to identify you.
SkullConduct works with modified Google Glass. It works by playing a one-second long audio clip through its speaker and then captures the sound after it’s traveled through the user’s skull. It analyzes the unique frequency to identify the wearer. The team found that their system correctly identified its test subjects 97 percent of the time.
So yes, there’s a still a way to go before it works perfectly.There are also some limitations to the system:
- It may not work properly if there’s enough background noise present to interfere with the audio.
- Users’ weight gain may change the feedback the mic receives, leaving the user locked out of their device.
This technology is still in its development phase, so it is likely to improve with time. This technology can be used at very large scale for security purpose in future.
