Heartfelt Security Application Emerges
Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico is testing security applications that depend on a user’s heartbeat. Under a recently signed Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), Albuquerque-based Aquila Inc. will create and test a wearable prototype that issues a real-time identifying signature based on the electrical activity of the user’s heart, according to a report from Sandia.
The electrocardiogram signals are sent from the wearable technology—which could be a wristband or a chest strap—to identify a person and grant them access to facilities or other security applications.
“The technology recognizes the wearer’s individual electrocardiogram signature and transmits a signal allowing the user access to a specific location,” said Sandia engineer Steven Horowitz. “The initial tests would be to see how the wearable communicates with access-control architecture, and additionally if it could effectively track a person’s movement within a facility.”
In developing the biometric technology, Aquila will rely on U.K.-based B-Secur’s software that allows real-time streaming of a user’s heart rate and other health indicators.
The technology would be an alternative to fingerprint readers or optical scans if those biometric security methods are not feasible, such as in a laboratory or research environment where users might be wearing gloves or eye protection, Sandia indicated.
