By face, fingerprint or PIN – smartphones now offer many ways to unlock. Researchers are now working on a new and quite unusual method. We are talking about unlocking with a heartbeat.
Modern smartphones store hundreds of sensitive data sets. Strong protection of the devices is therefore extremely important. Many developers and researchers therefore focus primarily on biometric methods and methods that are difficult to reproduce. An example of this is the fingerprint. But new unlocking options, such as authentication based on the position of the teeth, are also being tried out. However, a research group at the University of Toulouse, France, is currently working on a completely different innovation – smartphone unlocking using a heartbeat.
This is how the smartphone measures the heartbeat
The researchers have dubbed the novel biometric authentication system HoldPass. It is based on ballistocardiography (BCD). This is a non-invasive technique for examining heart activity. It is based on the movements of the human body in response to the cardiac cycle. HoldPass identifies a user based on their heartbeat while holding their smartphone. This is possible because HoldPass records and processes even the smallest vibrations in the hand caused by heart activity. To do this, the technology uses the accelerometer and gyroscope sensors found in smartphones.
Exactly this use of existing sensors as well as the measurement by hand also presented the researchers with problems. This is because the BCD signal is usually captured with a force sensor that is mounted on a scale or under the seat of a chair. A hand, on the other hand, only reproduces the heartbeat very weakly and also moves itself. HoldPass therefore has to face the challenge of using the hand measurement with the smartphone to identify relevant heartbeat characteristics that can be used to distinguish a user. In addition, the measurements must be able to be calculated in real time on a smartphone.
However, the researchers want to have developed a solution for these problems. The method must therefore only be used in a very targeted manner. Then, according to the researchers, HoldPass could achieve an authentication accuracy of 96.2 percent with a calculation time of 3 seconds. All users need to do for heartbeat unlock is hold their smartphone in their hand.
Also read: Bypass the screen lock of your own Android phone with “Smart Lock”.
method still under development
Overall, unlocking the smartphone using a heartbeat is still in the early development phase. It is still a long way from being able to use it in devices in the near future. In addition, the process takes 3 seconds and still quite long. In comparison, unlocking via fingerprint is almost instantaneous in just 2 to 3 milliseconds.
Nevertheless, the efforts and results of the researchers show where the development could go. Other teams of experts are already working on methods to unlock the smartphone using a heartbeat. In China For example, researchers have developed a method in which users have to place the mobile phone on their chest so that it can record heart activity. Not very practical, which is why the French researchers opted for the HoldPass solution.