Log-in with the shape of your heart

Researchers have developed a computer security system that uses the size and shape of users’ hearts as a unique identifier.

The system uses low-level Doppler radar to measure your heart. It takes around eight seconds the first time, but can continuously monitor your heart afterwards to make sure no one else has stepped in. “No two people with identical hearts have ever been found,” said Wenyao Xu, lead author on the study which will be presented at next month’s MobiCom conference in Utah.

The system's inventors, from the University at Buffalo in New York state, say the technology offers a potentially more effective alternative to passwords and other biometric identifiers such as fingerprints, and could be used for smartphones or at airport security. “We would like to use it for every computer because everyone needs privacy,” said Xu. “Logging-in and logging-out are tedious.”

The new system is a passive and non-contact device so users don’t have the hassle of logging in, or remembering to log-off. Xu plans to miniaturise the system and install it onto the corners of computer keyboards. It can also work from up to 30 metres away for security applications.

The signal strength is much lower than wi-fi, and is therefore not a threat to health, according to Xu. "We are living in a wi-fi surrounding environment every day, and the new system is as safe as those wi-fi devices," he said. "The reader is about 5 milliwatts, even less than 1% of the radiation from our smartphones."