Slashdot Mirror
New Car Anti-Theft Device Profiles Your Rear End
Hugh Pickens writes "A car-seat identifier developed at Japan's Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology by Associate Professor Shigeomi Koshimizu can recognize a person by his or her rear end with 98 percent accuracy when the person takes a seat in his car. The bucket seat's lower section is lined with 360 pressure sensors that measure pressure on a scale from 0 to 256, sending information to a laptop, which aggregates the information, generates the key data and produces a precise map of the seated person's rear profile. Researchers say traditional biometric techniques such as iris scanners and fingerprint readers cause stress to people undergoing identity checks, while the simple act of getting seated carries less psychological baggage. Koshimizu wants to see his work available commercially as an anti-theft product in two to three years if automakers agree to collaborate. He sees possibilities of this device being used beyond auto-theft identity protection to a device for security identification in office settings, where users log on to their PCs as they sit down."
Some people apply their rear pressure differently based on if their rear load is full, empty or something in between. Not only does your overall weight change, but also the formation of rear pressing against the seat will be different, especially depending on your nutrition and different days. Is it going to be able to detect such load changes without many problems? Obviously there needs to be some kind of threshold, but if your rear pressure varies a lot the device could even lock you out from using your car.
"measure pressure on a scale from 0 to 256" ... what an odd design choice.
No, honey; it's your arse that makes you look fat.
Technician: Hello, this is OnStar. How can I help you?
Owner: I locked my keys in my car, can you unlock it?
Technician: Certainly, let me just bring up your profile... Wow, sweet pooper -- do you do Zumba?
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
So what happens when your ass no longer matches the profile? Will you still be able to start your car or log into your computer?
And I am not necessarily talking about getting fatter over time. It is possible to get leg and back injuries that cause you to sit differently with different pressure applied to different areas when you sit down. What about people with hemorrhoids that need to sit on an inflatable donut?
you're walking until you loose those extra pounds.
0 to 255. Yeesh.
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
The scene: Aristocratic antique styled dining room. There's a long table to seat over 20 guests with a prominent chair at the head for the prime minister.
You see various servants tidying up and leaving the room one by one while a butler inspects, he leaves last.
*Ethan Hunt carefully drops down from the skylight suspended by a cable*
*After much twisting acrobatics he replaces the seat cushion on the prime ministers chair with a pressure sensitive decoy unit* (For suspense let's put in a scene where he nearly knocks over a glass of red wine and catches the spilt drop with one hand while holding the glass with the other, a single drop of sweat will fall on a plate at this point, Ethan will wince as the drop lands but he won't have time to wipe the plate off)
*He quickly lifts up just as the butler returns to the dining room, nudging the sensor into perfect alignment right as it leaves his reach*
*Butler notices the drop of sweat and raises an eyebrow curiously, he then makes an icy stare at the servant girl who set that area as she enters the room, she looks fearful and guilty*
*Cut to MI van parked outside, a 3D printer is printing out a faux-butt for Ethan to wear while he steals the prime minister's car, it is spraying a realistic flesh tone over the perfectly carved rear* (Insert witty joke from Luther about Ethan's butt, perhaps stating that he had to guess the color and hopes it's right)
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
Assuming a random statistical distribution of failure, and a short "timeout" between tests, the overall system success rate of a 98% success on first try followed by 98% on second try means you'll only have to try a third 98% success trial something around once for each owner of the car, assuming you own a car "about 4 years" or so, and assuming I did the math in my head correctly for 2500 days. I figure every 125000 times you boot up the car, you'll need a 4th try, that's booting up the car twice a day for 171 years. So "lock out after 6 attempts" seems safe enough to only happen accidentally a couple times in the lifetime of the product run?
Biggest problem is going to be embarrassment at having to get out of the car and try it again, if people see you doing that they're going to make all kinds of interesting assumptions about what happened to your rear last night, rough time doing doggie style or things are still too stretched out or sore back there today or whatever, so I'm thinking women would be waaaaaaay too embarrassed to buy one of these systems, even if it only happens once in a while.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
What about valet parking or taking the car to the shop? Obviously, there has to be some kind of override and as such, thieves, will find a way to hack it and still steal the vehicle.