Biometrics still absent from real Apple products

A newly-published Apple patent application proposes identifying iPhone users by their heartbeat, rather than by more conventional means like a passcode. The filing, Seamlessly Embedded Heart Rate Monitor, describes a system of leads that could be built into an iPhone, and register EKG data collected from a person's hand. Specific traits of a heartbeat can be used to tell people apart, Apple notes.

"For example," one section reads, "the durations of particular portions of a user's heart rhythm, or the relative size of peaks of a user's electrocardiogram (EKG) can be processed and compared to a stored profile to authenticate a user of the device."

The leads would have to be connected to a conductive part of an iPhone, most likely the bezel, although a metal back could serve a similar purpose. As people's heartbeats can naturally vary based on circumstance, Apple proposes sampling heartbeats at different times to increase accuracy. These variations could in fact be used to choose music according to mood, or the demands of a workout. Angry listeners could be fed ambient music, for instance, while people at the peak of a workout could be given trance to push them harder.

An iPhone could also register heart data through a headset sensor, though this would be for purposes like exercise, not identification. Apple has shown regular interest in biometrics, but it has yet to implement the concept in any of its Macs or handhelds. That could change with the next-generation iPhone, the prototype of which has a front-facing camera. Such a camera could be used to scan the faces of people trying to use a device.

by MacNN Staff