Yahoo can unlock your smartphone using your ear!

The technology is known as Bodyprint, and was revealed by a blog post on the Yahoo Labs website. Bodyprint makes use of a smartphone’s capacitive touchscreen to scan your ear when you press your phone against it. An image is then generated which is used to identify the user and unlock the phone.

Researchers have also been able to make Bodyprint work using other parts of the human body such as fists, knuckles, fingers and palms, using the touchscreen to create an image in each case. Although other body parts can be used, it would appear that the technology is best suited to use with the ear, seeing as people hold their phone there when they talk!

In this case a user would be required to press their ear fully against the phone in order to talk. The majority of high-end smartphones such as the Apple iPhone 6 and the Samsung Galaxy S6 already make use of a fingerprint-scanning technology, Bodyprint is a cheaper alternative. No additional sensors are required because the system uses the existing touchscreen as a sensor, meaning that the system could be used in cheaper models.

The fingerprint scanners included on smartphones have a very high resolution, whereas the touchscreen produces a lower-resolution image. However Yahoo Labs maintains that Bodyprint is still accurate enough to fulfill its function.

A research scientist at Yahoo Labs said, “Unlocking your smartphone is something you do about 150 times per day, you want to make unlocking it convenient, but also secure. That’s why fingerprint scanners are so successful.”

It is not yet known when Bodyprint technology will ever be seen in smartphones, but on the surface it would appear to be a very effective way of bringing bio-identification technology to a wider range of devices.

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Written By: Christine Romans
CopyWriter at The Computer Guyz Cape Town