A new system to verify identification

A new technology can recognize people using real-life biometric system. 

Anyone can do a electrocardiogram (ECG)- the five peaks and troughs, known as a PQRST pattern, that record each heartbeat. The shape of this pattern is affected by the heart’s size, its shape and its position in the body. Cardiologists have known since 1964 that everyone’s heartbeat is thus unique, and researchers around the world have been trying to turn that knowledge into a viable biometric system.

Now a group may have been success. They devise a system which ceaselessly measures a person’s PQRST pattern, conforms this corresponds with the registered user’s pattern, and can thus verify to various devices that the user is who he says he is.

ECGs are difficult to clone. Cloning a biometric marker takes two steps. First it must be “skimmed”. In the case of an ECG, this means duping someone into touching a surface that can record his heartbeat. That makes ECGs more secure than, say, fingerprints, which can be recovered from nearly anything that has been touched.

One obvious worry is that a person’s PQRST pattern might change beyond recognition in response to exercise or—over a longer period—as he aged. But according to Karl Martin, neither of these things is actually a problem. An elevated heartbeat does not change the shape of an ECG, just its frequency. And five years’ data collected by Dr Agrafioti’s group suggest age does not change it much either.