Posted June 17, 2012 by Raj Agrawal in Security

In Research: Authentication And Data Transmission Through Your Bones

Not very long ago, we discussed about a commercial product that allows listening to music with your bones, not eardrums using bone conduction technology. Furthering the scope of bone conduction, now AT&T is working on, and has currently readied a prototype demonstrating a Bio-Acoustic Data Transfer Technology that enables the user to unlock doors and mobiles by transferring digital keys through their bones. The users can also transfer contact information like a tiny business card, merely by shaking hands.

How Bio-Acoustic Data Transfer Technology works (with security perspective)

As demonstrated in the video above, the user has to touch the piezo-electric transducer (it’s basically a Guitar pick-up) connected to the phone, which pushes out a digital key as vibration. This keyed vibration is transmitted through the user’s body (bones) which identifies the user and unlocks the door. The key is unique for every user and must match with the owner’s key specifications. Since each individual has a unique skeletal structure and bone density, the transmitted key unique for each. If the user is an intruder, the authentication will fail and the door will stay locked.