Having ID is fundamental in today’s culture and lifestyle. It is vital to know who you are in cases such as health, terrorism, security and personality.
We already have passports, driving licences, and now the government want to bring out an overall ID card; and yet still people’s identities are stolen and bank accounts defrauded.
But the single most important ID of all is our unique fingerprint. It sets us apart from every other person in the universe, even if you are an identical twin.
Up until now our fingerprint has been the best way to get a person’s unique ID however, it seems the ear may be the best identification.
According to a study presented at the IEEE Fourth International Conference on Biometrics, through a new shape-finding algorithm called “image ray transform,” the outer ear may prove to be one of the most accurate and least intrusive ways to identify people.
Fingerprint databases can store the records of more than 100 million people but prints can rub off. With the advent of computer vision, researchers and identification industries are seeking easier biometrics to get their hands on.
And how does the science work?
Mark Nixon, a computer scientist at the University of Southampton and leader of the research, said: “When you’re born your ear is fully formed. The lobe descends a little, but overall it stays the same. It’s a great way to identify people.”
Recent technologies use computer vision to convert human features, even a person’s walk, into reliable alternatives to fingerprints.
Nixon’s technology can identify an ear, time after time, with 99.6 percent accuracy. It works by unleashing a ray-producing algorithm on an image to seek out curved features. When a ray finds one, the software draws over the part and repeats the analysis. In a few hundred or thousand cycles, it cleanly paints the ear more than any other face structure.
From there, another program turns the curves into a unique set of numbers, something that could be used as an ear-based ID.
Disadvantages to the technology include; hair covering the ears, less-than-ideal lighting conditions, cosmetic lifestyle changes and different IDs generated from different angles.
Fingerprinting has a history of 100 years showing that it works. And you all know the saying, if something isn’t broke, don’t fix it!