Monthly Archives: May 2009
Human Ear Could Be Next Biometric System
Biometric technique to use ear as third-party identification being investigated by British scientists.
British scientists are investigating the viability of a new biometric technique that would make use of the human ear as a way for a third party to identify the person they are speaking to.
According to a report in the New Scientist, instead of asking for passwords or pin numbers, a call centre or bank would simply use a device on their telephone to produce a brief series of clicks in the recipients ear to make sure the person is who they say they are.
The New Scientist says the idea is based on something called otoacoustic emissions (OAEs), the ear-generated sounds that emanate from within the spiral-shaped cochlea in the inner ear. They are thought to be produced by the motion of hair cells within the outer part of the cochlea. Typically, sounds entering the ear cause these outer hair cells to vibrate, and these vibrations are converted to electrical signals which are transmitted along the auditory nerve, allowing the sound to be sensed. Crucially, these cells also create their own sounds as they expand and contract.
Google announces new search tools to counter-fight Wolfram Alpha
Days after Wolfram Alpha was described as ‘Google Killer’, Google upped it ante in the ‘war of the search engines’ and released a new set of tools.
Wolfram Alpha, the new computational search engine, is set to go live on Monday May 15 at 7pm CST. The search engine, which is based on Mathematica and founder Stephen Wolfram’s own New Kind of Science, will provide users with answers to factual questions, unlike Google which simply provides websites which may or may not contain the required information. And far from worrying about possible technical glitches that might disrupt the launch, Wolfram has decided to film the whole process for users to watch. He said: “We hope that it’ll be interesting for people to join us as we work through these in real time.”
