Future Cell Phone Knows You By Your Walk

jangobongo writes "Researchers at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland have come up with a unique way to secure your cell phone if it should get lost or stolen: 'Gait code'. Motion sensors in the phone would monitor the walking pattern (or gait) of whoever is in possession of the phone, and if the 'gait' doesn't match a pre-established biometric the phone would require a password to operate. The prototype cell phone correctly identified when it was being carried by someone other than its owner 98% of the time. The research team points out (powerpoint document) that this method could also work for PDAs, laptops, USB tokens, smart cards, wallets, suitcases, and guns."

Comments

But

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm a wheelchair you insensitive clod. Anyone who can roll can pretend to be me.

Won't Sell in Scotland

[turgid]

Imagine when you've had 6-8 pints of Heavy and you stumble out of the pub and try to phone a taxi.

Have you ever tried typing in a password after a gallon of beer?

Never mind, there's always the beer scooter.

Re:Won't Sell in Scotland

[ThinkingInBinary]

In Scotland you can just train it when you're drunk, and you'll be fine most of the time!

/me ducks.

Re:Won't Sell in Scotland

[Hogwash McFly]

It's funny, it takes you 43 attempts when blind drunk to enter your password, but the rambling yet coherent message declaring your wish to have sex with your best female friend (who thinks of you as a brother) gets to the correct destination as quickly and easily as a cartographer moonlighting as a cab driver...

So...

[Zocalo]

I guess this means that you now have to prove that you can "walk the walk" before you can "talk the talk" now?

'gait'

[BushCheney08]

...and if the 'gait' doesn't match...

There's really no need to put the word gait in quotes. The definition of the word fits exactly with how they're using it. Maybe we should start randomly putting other perfectly cromulent words in quotes. Let me continue with the rest of that sentence:
...and if the 'gait' doesn't match a pre-established 'biometric' the 'phone' would require a 'password' to 'operate.'

</pedant>