Forget fingerprints or retina scans — the shape of your ears could be the next choice of identification when you pass through airport security, reports the Telegraph.
Researchers from the University of Southampton in the U.K. have discovered that each person’s ears have a unique shape and have created a system that is able to scan them for airport security. The ear scanning technique, as presented at the Fourth International Conference on Biometrics, uses a technology that highlights all of the tubular structures of the ear and measures them. With 99 percent accuracy, the scans can then be compared with a database of ear shapes to identify whose they are.
Professor Mark Nixon, who led the team of researchers, hopes that the system can be used to take pictures of a person’s ear as they walk through passport control.
Although the ear-scanning technology has not been rolled out at airports yet, it could be a more reliable scan than facial recognition software–as long as you keep your hair behind your ears.
