Your Thoughts Are Your Password

Vitaly Friedman writes "Scientists hope that mind-reading computers will one day replace typed passwords, making fingerprint readers and retina scans obsolete. Skeptics say don't count on it. From the article: 'Researchers at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, are exploring the possibility of a biometric security device that will use a person's thoughts to authenticate her or his identity. Their idea of utilizing brain-wave signatures as pass-thoughts is based on the premise that brain waves are unique to each individual. Some researchers believe the difference might just be enough to create a system that allows you to log in with your thoughts.'"

Comments

Good luck with that

[Anonymous Coward]

fMRI xperiments have consistently shown that people are not able to consciously control activity (average firing rates) in local networks within the brain. Since all brain scans pick up mean field electrical activity (and, unless you are willing to stab yourself in the brain with micro-electrodes, always will), it will be impossible to create a unique thought pattern signature that is consistently reproducable.

Re:Great...

[jfengel]

Probably a good thing, if you ever go on eBay.

Re:Hopeful Scientists...

[From A Far Away Land]

"Me...I just want my goddamned flying car"
A more significant use of thought-reading computers could be to have them design a device or program of our wishes/thoughts. Until this point people have had to program or draw what they want and tell the machines what to do to make it. Maybe now besides a computer reading our thoughts so we can never be free [since the computer would hand over our thoughts to a government request for information], we can also have them design wonderful things automatically by thinking about it, and letting the computer work out the details.

Re:summary of article, not likely to happen

[david.given]

There's going to be a lot of people having a bad hair day. For once, being bald holds an advantage.

From Arthur C Clarke's future history:

2025 Neurological research finally leads to an understanding of all the senses, and direct inputs become possible, bypassing eyes, ears, skin, etc. The inevitable result is the metal "Braincap" of which the 20th century's Walkman was a primitive precursor. Anyone wearing this helmet, fitting tightly over the skull, can enter a whole universe of experience real or imaginary - and even merge in real-time with other minds. Apart from its use for entertainment and vicarious adventure, the Braincap is a boon to doctors, who can now experience their patients symptoms (suitably attenuated). It also revolutionizes the legal profession; deliberate lying is impossible. As the Braincap can only function properly on a completely bald head, wig-making becomes a major industry.

another thought

[venicebeach]

If you want to retrieve identity from the human brain, a structural scan will do much better than a functional scan. The pattern of folds and grooves in the cortex is highly individualized, and relatively static. Functional activity is much more dynamic and inconsistent over time. I can, for example, recognize my own brain fairly easily because I have an unusual shape to my precentral sulcus on the left side.

Re:what if you're hit by a bus

[utlemming]

What I am wonder is how this will affect people with neurological disorders that affect brain patterns like epilespy? I know an epileptic that has aura's all the time and she gets dizzy. Her EEG's during those dizzy periods are not normal minutes to hours before a siezure. And bipolar disorders? Sure you can think the password, but if your brain isn't stable all the time how can thinking a password match 100% of the time? What if you change medications? Some migraine medicanes are epilespy drugs and they act on receptor sites that can cause cognitive problems. Parkinsons patients have the same issues. Some of the anti-anxiety drugs are vallium derivative. Do those change the brain patterns? Even more interesting is if someone has an injury and is put on narcotics? Does that mean that the person will be locked out of their computer? And how would anti-depresants like SSRI's affect brain patterns? With the high number of people on them it could cause some issues.

With out knowing all the answers, I would argue that medical issues will be the killer. Realiability would be a huge problem. Unlike other biometerics which have a low probability of changing, I think that brain patterns would be far too unpredictable for wide-spread deployment.