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No More Fingers! 'Brainprints' to Be the Passwords of the Future

  
Analysis, Education
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BrainPeople can be accurately identified by their unique brain wave pattern, a new study has revealed.

A team at Binghamton University found that each of us has a personal “brainprint” that can be detected with particular techniques. In an experiment reported in the journal IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, the researchers, led by Dr Sarah Laszlo, explained how they selected 50 volunteers and showed them various images. 

These included photos of “a slice of pizza, a boat, Anne Hathaway, [and] the word ‘conundrum,’ ” the paper explains. As each subject looked at the images, an electroencephalogram (EEG) machine was picking up the way their brain behaved. 

The scientists found that each participant’s brain reacted in a different and specific way to the images shown. Building on that, the researchers managed to developed an algorithm which was able to match every person with their “brainprint” with high accuracy.

According to Laszlo and her colleagues, “brainprints” could become the passwords of the future. One could first be plugged to the EEG machine to record his or her particular “brainprint” as they look at some specific image, effectively setting a “brain pin code.” Then, every time that person sees that given image again, another EEG machine would cross-reference its brainwaves with a vast database to confirm their identity beyond any doubt. (more…)

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