WATCHES and spectacles were “wearable technology” long before the marketing maven who dreamed the term up was born. But now that some of these devices are fitted with gizmos which let their wearers monitor and record their lives down to the millisecond, many technologists are asking what else the data thus generated might be used for. One such is Javier Hernandez of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He thinks Apple Watches, Google Glasses and their kin might provide a solution to the problem of password inflation.
Ever longer, ever more numerous, ever more complicated passwords are a curse of modern life. Unless such passwords are used frequently, remembering them is close to impossible. So they get written down, obviating the point of their complexity. One way around this is to use unique bodily characteristics, known as biometrics, to identify people. Fingerprints and iris scans, in particular, have been tried, but both require special equipment. Mr Hernandez’s work offers an alternative that does not: ballistocardiography.
Ballistocardiography is the study of the body’s movement in response to the activity of the heart. Every time someone’s heart beats, his body shifts slightly. The details of these shifts seem unique to individuals. Mr Hernandez wondered whether the accelerometers fitted to things like smart watches might be able to...
from The Economist: Science and technology http://ift.tt/1SrC1nx
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