Researchers have developed a biometric identification technique which involves measuring the bone conduction of sound through a user's skull, saying it will be perfect for “smart glasses”, VR headsets or smartphones.Developed by a team of computer scientists from the University of Stuttgart, University of Saarland and the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Germany, the prototype system has been dubbed SkullConduct.Using a Google Glass-style device, the team created unique skull vibrations.”If recorded with a microphone, the changes in the audio signal reflect the specific characteristics of the user's head,” the researchers report in the Journal of the ACM.”Since the structure of the human head includes different parts such as the skull, tissues, cartilage, and fluids and the composition of these parts and their location differ between users, the modification of the sound wave differs between users as well.”The team says that using the bone is just better than audio:Especially for eyewear computers that already are located close or even at the head of the user, using bone conduction yields the advantage that the audio is not well audible to bystanders and thus more private.”Although tested on just 10 subjects, the team said that SkullConduct can correctly identify the wearer 97 percent of the time.However, the team also noted that these tests were conducted in a laboratory environment, and that it will be interesting to see if and how much additional noise, such as other people talking in the room or appliances, had an impact on accuracy.
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