Forget fingerprinting,
voice gratitude, or even retinal scans. Access to high-security areas could
soon hinge on the way you swagger. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s
new Pedo-Biometrics Lab are working to great a shoe insert that can help
monitor access to nuclear power plants, military bases, and other critical communications.
Everyone has unique feet and single ways of walking. By using sensors to gauge
foot force and gait, the bio-sole’s microcomputer can compare patterns of association
with existing records. If the patterns line up, the insole becomes latent. If
they don’t, it sets off a wireless alarm.
The lab, which secured
$1.5 million in startup backing, is a partnership with Autonomous ID, a
Canadian company that specializes in low-cost ID technology. Todd Gray, the
company’s president, not only claims that the system is no thicker than the
foot pads you discover at the drug store, but it can also ID a person within
three steps.
Prototypes already exhibit
an accuracy rate of more than 99 percent, but the Carnegie Mellon team will
broaden the tests to include “a full gamut of society: big, tall, thin, heavy,
athletic, multicultural, on a diet, twins and so on,” he said.
Beyond checking a
person’s security permission, the bio-sole could also have medical
applications. Several papers obtainable this month at the Alzheimer’s
Association International Conference in Vancouver suggest that changes in a
senior person’s pace and stride can augur the onset of dementia.
