Sensor Uses Body's Electrical Signature To Secure Devices

coondoggie writes with word that a "group of researchers is proposing a sensor that would authenticate mobile and wearable computer systems by using the unique electrical properties of a person's body to recognize their identity. In a paper [presented Monday] at the USENIX Workshop on Health Security and Privacy, researchers from Dartmouth University Institute for Security, Technology, and Society defined this security sensor device, known as Amulet, as a 'piece of jewelry, not unlike a watch, that would contain small electrodes to measure bioimpedance — a measure of how the body's tissues oppose a tiny applied alternating current- and learns how a person's body uniquely responds to alternating current of different frequencies.'"

Re:Oh joy

[Rei]

I was thinking the same thing. I'd thought of this concept a while back as a "turn almost anything into a key *except* a living organism" approach. That is, if you wanted a really nifty-looking key to your door, it could be some mystic-looking crystal, or some stone sigil, or whatnot. Measure how it interacts with a wide range of AC inputs provided from specific electrodes, and (assuming you have a good mechanism to fit it precisely in place on the same electrodes each time) you've got a unique signature for that object to unlock the door with. I'd think it would be very hard to fake, since trying to tune the shape/composition of a dummy "key" to adjust one frequency will mess with all the others.

Of course more than security, I was mainly thinking of that from a "wouldn't this be awesome and probably not that hard to implement?" approach.