Japanese biometric researchers turn to reflex responses
In the International Journal of Biometrics, Japanese researchers from Shizuoka University, Masakatsu Nishigaki and Daisuke Arai, explain that due to widespread use of biometrics, there is also a higher chance that a skilled fraudster could use stolen biometric information to fool current systems, according to a Science Daily article. Due to this they have turned their research to biometric technologies that won’t require a user’s data to be kept secret as it couldn’t be used against him.
The new technology they have been working on uses a person’s unique reflex reactions to authenticate. By their nature reflexes are unconscious reactions and therefore would not be able to be copied or faked by a criminal. The technology uses a person’s unique blind spot in their eye, called scotoma, in addition to tracking eye movement when tracking an object moving back and forth, called saccade response.
An Israeli biometrics developer, ID-U Biometrics, has already been developing devices and software utilizing saccade response that would incorporate a user’s Web cam to track the eye and determine certain other physical traits of the eye to authenticate. Where Nishigaki and Arai’s technology differs is in using the scotoma in conjunction with the saccade response to authenticate.
By placing a target within and outside of the user’s blind spot, they will measure the reflex time taken for the eye to move, or create a saccade response. They assert that this technology will be completely impossible to fool even with surgery or enhanced contact lenses. Nishigaki and Arai are also developing other similar technologies that additionally involve pupil contraction and eye crossing.
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