Researchers Can Identify You By Your Brain Waves With 100% Accuracy (business-standard.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Scientists have developed a new system that can identify people using their brain waves or 'brainprint' with 100% accuracy, an advance that may be useful in high-security applications. Researchers at Binghamton University in U.S. recorded the brain activity of 50 people wearing an electroencephalogram (EEG) headset while they looked at a series of 500 images designed specifically to elicit unique responses from person to person -- e.g., a slice of pizza, a boat, or the word "conundrum." They found that participants' brains reacted differently to each image, enough that a computer system was able to identify each volunteer's 'brainprint' with 100% accuracy. "When you take hundreds of these images, where every person is going to feel differently about each individual one, then you can be really accurate in identifying which person it was who looked at them just by their brain activity," said Assistant Professor Sarah Laszlo. One thing the paper doesn't talk about is the effect of time on the accuracy of the system. People may perceive different things when looking at the same picture a year later, for instance.

Comments

False negatives and false positives

[gurps_npc]

100% accuracy can be misleading. Are they talking 0% false negatives, 0% false positives, or both?

I could easily see a situation where it has 0% false positives, but a high false negative rate.

That is, I could claim that my "Presidential Identification" is 100% right if I said no one I met was the President of the US. No false positives because I never said anyone was President.

Similarly, someone could do it the other way around, claiming everyone was the President and have 100% accuracy because I identified every single President in the sample.

Stress & Biometric Issues

[cyriustek]

Some rightly noted that it may be possible for brain waves to change over time. However, I wonder if stress can significantly change the identification? For example, merely looking at images may provide a different brain wave result if the person being examined has a gun being held to their head whilst looking at the images. In kind, what if the person just learned his/her significant other is cheating on them. (By a mattress with an app, surely)

A common biometric issue is that if the information that represents who you are is stolen (a fingerprint, iris pattern, etc...), you cannot easily change it. However, I wonder if appropriately controlled stress or mind exercises can change one's brain pattern?