Your swagger could one day open doors for you. Massachusetts General Hospital
in Charlestown has gone beyond conventional biometrics such as fingerprint or
iris recognition, and is patenting a way of using human anatomy and gait as a
鈥減assword鈥 (WO 01/73680) to identify individuals seeking access to a restricted
area or system. A pair of video cameras simultaneously record a series of images
of a person as they walk. From this, the system calculates arm, leg and torso
lengths, together with measures of characteristic body motions such as a head
roll, arm swing, leg stride and shoulder posture. The limb length and gait data
is then compared with pre-recorded reference data, and a match authorises
access.
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