However improbably, ear biometrics seem to be catching on. Amazon has now patented a smartphone system that allows for user authentication via ear scan.
The system identifies users based on their ear shapes, which are said to be as unique as fingerprints. The system Amazon has patented is similar to Descartes’ HELIX system, which was recently showcased at the CES on the Hill event in Washington. Of course, HELIX was being developed as a multipurpose solution that could even be used with CCTV systems, whereas Amazon’s appears to be specifically for smartphone authentication. It could even be used to automatically adjust speaker volume by detecting proximity to the user’s ear.
It’s an unusual system, to be sure, but the patent indicates that it could eventually be widespread on Amazon’s next generation of Fire devices. Given the rise of mPayment platforms, which tend to rely on biometric authentication for transactions, it could prove popular; or at the very least it could prove useful as part of a multimodal system, which would be significantly more secure than a security platform relying on only one modality, as most smartphone user authentication systems currently do.
Source: The Next Web
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