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Subscribe to RSSIn some James Bond films, the spy and his enemies undergo various biometric screenings, such as retinal and handprint scans, to access important info or gain control a super secret weapon. The next time we see Bond, he could get a knee MRI to learn a covert code to stop a rogue evil weapon.
Wait, what? A knee MRI could identify someone much like a fingerprint or eye scan? It's true - Lior Shamir, a professor of computer science at Lawrence Tech University, has discovered that people’s knees are as unique as our fingerprints or eyes.
“I used to work on genetics [research] and with genetics you start thinking about what makes people different,” he says. “[This could be] something, like a fingerprint and iris, [that] is so different—our external as well as our internal [traits are unique].”
Using an algorithm, Shamir looked at a database of knee MRIs from 2,686 patients. Each person received a baseline MRI scan and a second image two years later. The algorithm looks at the pixels that make up each MRI and each scan’s unique texture and compares it to the database of images. Even though the program looks at the images at a minuscule level, Shamir notes that in some cases, even an untrained eye can match some of the knees. The program, of course, is much more reliable than the naked eye, assuring 93 percent accuracy in matching a person’s first knee image to the second.
“The accuracy cannot compete with fingerprints and iris [scans],” he says. “It’s visionary … internal body parts can be [used in] biometrics.”
Even though knees change over time, with cartilage, meniscus, and ligaments wearing down, the algorithm can still match the original picture of the knee with its newer version. While Shamir was unable to compare the knees after longer periods of time, say like what might happen over a 20-year period, he thinks that it is more difficult for people to drastically modify their knees. He believes that using a knee to definitively identify a person could be more effective in cases where people were trying to dupe the system. Anyone who has seen the movie “Seven” remembers that the serial killer sheers off all his fingertips to avoid leaving prints at the scene. While this is an extreme case, there are ways that people can trick current biometrical technology—it’s much harder to modify knees without surgery.
“The knee needs to change substantially to trick the algorithm and that is not easy to do because it involves an invasive procedure. It is not like wearing gloves or wearing sunglasses,” he explains.
While MRI identification of internal parts isn’t currently practical, if MRI technology advances quickly and becomes more affordable, it could be used to identify people at airports, for example.
The study appears in the International Journal of Biometrics.
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The problem with all bio-metric screening is that if someone were to hack and obtain the digital output of the scan (like they steal PIN information from retail establishments through insider jobs), that hacked information can be injected into the system circumventing the bio-metric reader. That's why iris scans haven't become common place. They sound great to the common person, but security experts know the true flaw. Unlike a hacked credit card number or PIN, you can't be issued a new iris, fingerprint, or knee. Your information has been compromised for the rest of your life.
In order to hack the computer system, you would need to gain access to the computer system first. You would then need to replace someone else's information with your own in order to successfully pass through the airport scanners. Presumably high security passwords would be needed to change this information, along with one time authorization by a general manager who would have to input their own biometric data into the system by way of a select scanner in order to successfully do this. Extremely difficult if not impossible to do! - RC
Went to the doctor the other day and he asked me if I owned guns...Stated that he had to ask me that question. I in return asked him if his wife had big tits...he said that was none of my business...I told him he just got his answer to the question.
bullet45 that's a good one.
Re general gun violence in the USA: I suspect insurance companies will also be cashing in on the idea of 'crime-proned' areas to hike up their premiums. Just like they do here (in CDN) in big cities when there are too many traffic accidents - your car premiums go up and up and up... They would stand to make a lot of dough.
If that doesn't work, pull your dress up farther. Eventually, they should recognize you.
they should be able to use my neck. 4 metal pins, 3 grafts, lots of calcium deposits. They should be able to use that for an ID anytime ha. Even if I die in a fire ha. Probably better than tooth records!
I believe my butt is more unique then my knees. But that's probably just me.
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Why don't we just pull down our pants and moon them at the Airport Security checkpoint?
Every ass has a different pattern.
I would think that MRI's of both hands would be the most individually unique, especially given how many bones, connecting cartilage and tendons there are in the human hand. The human hand is probably the most physically intricate part on the human body, followed by the human foot (which could be a possible alternative). - RC
(Every time you successfully go through, this information on record would be updated with the latest scan information, so your biometric data would never become obsolete.)
(I would hesitate to use knees because so many are being replaced these days. The powerful magnetic field needed for MRI's would potentially make this very dangerous.) - RC
Well if you want to READ something really interesting go read pages 1000 to1008 of OBAMACARE....................It states that within 36 months after implication that it is MANDATORY for all US Citizens to have a RFID Chip a little larger than a Grain of rice implanted into your HAND of HEAD.!!!!!...................SERIOUSLY I have Read It .!!!!!.................If this is so............This will make OBAMA the ANTICHRIST???????......Revolution Calling you!!