With the plethora of powerful password creation tutorials and helpful apps available online, one might think it is quite a trivial task to create a really strong password. Yet, the users are forced to answer the questions about their mother’s maiden name to retrieve the forgotten password.
Recently, the smartphone manufacturers have started including the biometric identification systems like face and fingerprint scanners to allow access to the users. However, even these scanners are prone to hacks and can be hoodwinked to allow unauthorized usage of your gadgets.
A group of researchers from the Saarland University has collaborated with the University of Stuttgart to create a universal biometric identification system which allows the users to forgo the vulnerable fingerprint and face scanning systems.
The latest technology has leveraged the inbuilt functions and features of the eyewear wearables like the Google glass to create a unique biometric identification system that allows access using skull of the user.
The basic concept of this technology is based on the fact that each human skull differs from the other in shape, size and density. SkullConduct uses the characteristic features of a skull by sending a sound pattern into the head of the user. As the sound waves rebound from the head, the unique profile of the user skull imparts a particular pattern to the sound waves, which remains specific to that user.
The technology uses the integrated microphone of the Google Glass to detect the sounds. The bone conduction speaker, typically employed for sound transmission to the inner ear via skull, is also used for audio pattern detection.
The technique is currently compatible only with the wearables equipped with the bone conduction speakers as well as the microphones. The current accuracy of the system is 97%, with the system being tested on ten participants.
The testing of SkullConduct was performed in a controlled environment with practically no background noise. The technology has yet to prove its value in a real life scenario where the noise from the ambient environment is also present, thus making detection difficult.
The inventor of SkullConduct, Andreas Bulling is continually working on perfecting the system and finding ways to make it compatible with smartphones.
The concept of SkullConduct is explained in the video below: