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Summary Komogortsev's team could field test an eye-movement security machine in future.
A computer scientist is looking to create a system that can identify people by the way they flicker their eyes while looking at a computer screen.We are seeing there are enough differences so we can talk about this as a biometric, Komogortsev said. A biometric is a measurement of something on the body — fingerprints, for instance — used to identify people. Computer scientists all over the world are studying biometrics for crime solving, for border security, and just as a high-tech way to sign into smartphones, tablets and other devices.Komogortsevs research is in its earliest stages and needs years of work before it might show up at airports, high-security workplaces or even home computers. However, he thinks eye movements could be part of the next generation of a more established biometric, iris scans, which are already used in some airports and private companies, and in a countrywide ID effort in India.Previously, researchers showed that crooks can fool an iris scanner with printed contacts, or by holding up a high-quality printout of the correct persons eye in front of the scanner. Komogortsev hopes adding an eye-movement sensor could prevent this type of counterfeiting. The strength of our method is it can work together with iris, he said.They appear to be making progress in refining and perfecting the idea, Kevin Bowyer, an iris-scanning researcher at the University of Notre Dame, wrote to TechNewsDaily in an email. Bowyer reviewed papers for a recent conference in which Komogortsev presented his research, but was not involved in Komogortsevs work.
