7: Esoteric Biometrics in Software

Generate Code 128A in Software 7: Esoteric Biometrics

been done to substantiate the claims This is still a relatively new technology and more testing is required to determine its biometric capabilities Light processing, as opposed to the image processing of other biometrics, requires little computing power, making it ideal for portable devices like smart cards, handguns, and cell phones Smith and Wesson, the makers of American firearms, is developing a smart gun to be secured by Lumidigm Technology22 As a multimodal biometric, skin luminescence could be an excellent way to ensure liveness testing for biometrics such as fingerprints, where detecting real skin as opposed to facsimiles is critical

Laura Guevin, in a short article, Picking Your Brain in The Name of Security, published on August 19, 2002, has explained what brain fingerprinting or what is more properly known as computerized knowledge assessment is all about: In the 1990s, the United States Intelligence Community apparently provided research funds for Emanuel Donchin, a psychologist, and his student, Lawrence Farwell, to expand on a standard EEG test, which measures fluctuations in electrical potential caused by patterns of brain activity (EEG is an acronym for encephalogram, or brainwaves) According to Guevin: Donchin specialized in a characteristic bump in the EEG scan called the P300, which occurs approximately a third of a second after the subject being tested recognizes something significant Farwell continued testing the viability of using P300 for criminal cases, and ended up patenting the Farwell Brain Fingerprinting method The system basically works by flashing words or pictures relevant to a crime on a computer screen, along with irrelevant words and pictures Electrical brain responses are measured through a patented headband equipped with sensors Farwell discovered that a memory and encoding related multifaceted electroencephalographic response (MERMER) was elicited when the brain processed noteworthy information it recognized Therefore, if details of a crime only a perpetrator would know about were presented, a MERMER would be emitted by the brain of the perpetrator but not by the brain of an innocent suspect23 Farwell advocates using brain fingerprinting for security applications, such as screening airline passengers His theory is that people could be screened

Cameron, Skin Chips, 2002 Laura Guevin, Picking Your Brain in The Name of Security, August 19, 2002, available at http://wwwtmcnetcom/tmcnet/columns/laura081602htm

without revealing their names, through the use of biometrics As the brain wave test is given, the passenger s biometric (for example, fingerprint or iris scan) would be gathered to link the subject to his/her identity The test subject would then put on a headset and watch video images on a standard computer monitor for a short while The test would be used to present information with which terrorists are familiar Brain fingerprinting supposedly works by determining whether a stimulus (such as a video clip of a terrorist camp or crime scene) has been previously seen by a subject Similarly, William Lawson has explained, While it is true that a person has the ability to alter most of their own brain wave patterns, they cannot alter what is referred to as their baseline brain-wave pattern So, it occurred to us that an individual s baseline brain-wave pattern has the ability to be recognized as the newest undiscovered biometric solution This is a solution we like to refer to as an EEG Fingerprint According to John Polich, writing in the Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology in 1998, clinical factors can affect the results generated by the P300 bump, including heavy use of alcohol and marijuana24 At first thought, brain wave patterns seem to be the basis for a science fiction blockbuster After more reflection, the technology, if true, has great potential in law enforcement and counterterrorism applications One could easily see how brain wave fingerprints would replace the polygraph as the investigator s technology of choice to determine whether someone has knowledge of a crime that only the criminal would have One could also envision how the technology could be used in countless applications, such as background investigations, trusted traveler programs, and many others Civil libertarians will vociferously object to its use

Footprints as a form of identification date back to ancient China, where they were used to help identify children a practice still common today when a newborn baby s footprints are taken at the hospital And as the old Western films make clear, lawmen and Indian scouts used footprints to track, a well-established technique, but not exactly a biometric Two approaches to footprint biometrics exist One approach measures the static features, such as the footprint ridges, just like fingerprint or palm prints The other approach attempts to measure the foot dynamic of a footstep as one walks

John Polich, P300 Clinical Utility and Control of Variability, Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology, January 15, 1998, 15(1): 14-33