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Your Brain Waves Are a Password: How Your Next Car Will Check You're Not a Thief

Posted by samzenpus on from the scan-me dept.

cartechboy writes "And you thought stealing cars was hard today? You're facing locks, kill switches, LoJacks, OnStar, and more. But there's worse on the way: Engineers at Japan's Tottori University have developed a prototype theft-prevention system that uses brain waves to identify drivers. That's right: The system samples your brain waves, stores them--and actually shuts down the car if the driver's EEG signals don't match what's on file. It also busts drunk and sleepy drivers, because their brain waves differ from those when you're fully awake and totally sober. One non-Tron downside: If you want to drive, you have to wear a scary-looking set of sensors on your skull so the car can constantly reads your brainwaves."

6 of 169 comments (clear)

  1. About face! by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "One non-Tron downside: If you want to drive, you have to wear a scary-looking set of sensors on your skull so the car can constantly reads your brainwaves."

    In other words - none of this will ever actually see the light of day.

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    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:About face! by BlueStrat · · Score: 4, Funny

      Advice to developers: Contact NSA. They'll be happy to provide unlimited funding for this.

      Null program, there, AC.

      Like the NSA hasn't had their own at-a-distance bi-directional systems for years, in fac&2@Y&UIjoi)(*vhMPYyNM^thequickbrownfoxjumpsoverthelazydog@t4%*(5GUJ[Hj9}8.Ruy45YCv

      #NO CARRIER

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      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
  2. False negatives? by Michael+Woodhams · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What if I'm hugely stressed out because a tsunami or forest fire is coming or my critically injured child needs rushing to hospital or some such? If that changes my brain waves enough to prevent me driving, it would be unfortunate.

    (To be fair, TFA says they're looking initially to use it on buses and armoured cars. I wonder if "masked man is pointing gun at my head and ordering me to drive" sufficiently alters the brain waves.)

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    Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
    1. Re:False negatives? by hedwards · · Score: 4, Informative

      Then you'd probably know that schizophrenia is not what they used to call Multiple Personality Disorder.

  3. Re:How your car thief will will steal your cars. by k8to · · Score: 5, Funny

    I believe brain patterns typically alter when the head is separated from the body.

    Your milage may vary.

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    -josh
  4. Re:How your car thief will will steal your cars. by Alsee · · Score: 5, Funny

    I believe brain patterns typically alter when the head is separated from the body.

    "Typically" implies you think that's true for more than than 50% of the population.
    I dunno, either you're an optimist or I'm a cynic.

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