Nose Scanners — the New Face of Biometrics? 115
An anonymous reader writes "Forget fingerprints and ID cards, this photo story shows how the latest thing in biometrics is nose scanning! Bath university researchers have claimed that the nose will soon be able to be used as a way of identifying a person. Apparently the 'PhotoFace system captures a 3D image of a person's face by taking several photos lit from different angles to throw shadows on the face and then building a model of facial features. The software determined that there are six main nose shapes: Roman, Greek, Nubian, Hawk, Snub and Turn-up.' Some cool pictures make this worth a click — but what happens if a person breaks their nose?!"
Before you know it (Score:5, Insightful)
Biometrics are going to use your DNA for verification, which is the only fool-proof system. I mean, come on, how would you fake someone else's DNA? ::cough::GATTACA::cough::
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Twins.
Exactly the same DNA, different person.
The goatee.
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Well with this system, you don't need to go that far. Just break your nose, and you're a whole 'new you'.
I'm sorry, but this idea is about as useful as a box of hair...
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I'm sorry, but this idea is about as useful as a box of hair...
Hair Scanners -- the New Toupée of Biometrics?
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One positive aspect... (was:Re:Before you know..) (Score:5, Funny)
On the positive side, if anyone beats you up and breaks your nose, they can now be sued for aiding and abetting terrorism by making the 'nose database' useless...
Worse... (Score:1)
...cut off your nose to spite your face.
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Don't forget anyone who feeds you too many donuts..
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It would be a denial of service attack.
Running afoul of felony battery laws while also breaking DMCA protections!
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How useless is this, at any given point there has to be about 50-100 people in Beverly Hills that have the same nose.
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What do they do on the days where it's somebody else's turn?
Like this? (Score:2, Interesting)
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/08/dna-samples-used-by-crime-labs-faked-in-research-lab.ars [arstechnica.com]
Granted, they say it carries markers of having been lab-tampered, but that detecting the markers requires currently-unusual sophistication. Interesting, though.
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But I fear the worse too for the future.
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Would that work in Hollywood? (Score:1)
I am worried... (Score:1)
will they scan also the inside of the nose ?!? It would be very awful to analyze...
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Actually, it's snot as bad as that.
Sorry, it had to be said.
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Nice going, guys.
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The Inside? Really?
Damn, I won't get one of those at home. If I snort too much, I can't get back in! Talk about an effective anti-drug campaign.
Biometrics waste of time. (Score:2, Insightful)
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Re:Biometrics waste of time. (Score:4, Interesting)
Tried to find a link, but its apparently just too obscure, so I'll go from memory. Carl Reiner was presented some sort of lifetime achievement award by Mel Brooks, who played it as if Reiner had been a total fake all those years, and this was the last straw. The camera cut to shots of protesters with signs reading "Reiner isn't funny", and then Mel accuses Reiner of forcing him to wear a fake Jewish nose. Brooks then proceeds to remove his fake rubber nose, revealing a decidedly less ethnic one underneath, pointing at it and shouting "I have a gentile nose!".
Of course the gentile nose was a fake one on top of his actual nose. But if Mel Brooks can rock not one but two fake noses long enough to present an award, then airport security should be a piece of matzo.
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From http://www.myjewishlearning.com/culture/2/Film/American_and_European/Hollywood_and_Judaism/Mel_Brooks.shtml [slashdot.org]
found a bunch of links using the terms 'carl reiner mel brooks false nose'
Flash forward to the April 1991 American Comedy Awards, a show honoring Carl Reiner with its Lifetime Achievement Award. Steve Martin introduces Brooks as Reiner's "illegitimate son" and asks for a few words about his longtime friend and collaborator. Addressing the star-studded audience as "Ladies and Jews," Brooks's voice grows steadily more strident as he indignantly castigates Reiner first for not being funny and second for forcing him to assume a false identity: For 25 years he pretended that he was a Jew when he was really a gentile from Waco, Texas. (The real Waco Kid?) Finally, Brooks rips off his "false" nose, begins yelling in a Texas drawl, and vows never to utter "any more of that Jew talk."
A few moments later, a convulsed Reiner thanks Brooks for channeling into humor his deep-seated anger over having to pay homage to someone less talented. Brooks builds all his films on his indignation, attacking serious topics such as bigotry, intolerance, and greed through comedy
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That is obscure, even more than I thought. Wikipedia has a very incomplete list [wikipedia.org] of ceremonies and winners. And if Wikipedia doesn't have it, you know it's obscure.
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I would assume that part would be taken care of in thermal imaging.
Worst possible choice (Score:5, Insightful)
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The nose is actually one of the few parts of the body that grows (and changes) your entire life.
Your identification card is updated on a fairly regular basis already.
Re:Worst possible choice (Score:4, Funny)
Two words....
Michael Jackson
nuff said...
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Two words....
Michael Jackson
nuff said...
Actually his nose is quite stable now. It's likely to remain in its current state long after the rest of his body has decayed to nothing.
Maybe in some future time someone or something will dig up his remains and wonder what all the extra parts were for.
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Can you imagine some archelogist digging him up in a few millenia and wondering what kind of shaman he must be? I mean, religious mutilation, various artificial parts inserted in the body...
Must've been a really weird cult of human sacrifice and deification of silicon parts. Some successor of Däniken would certainly claim it's clearly a sign that silicon based aliens were worshipped here by us trying to convert one of us into one of them...
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Actually his nose is quite stable now. It's likely to remain in its current state long after the rest of his body has decayed to nothing.
Maybe in some future time someone or something will dig up his remains and wonder what all the extra parts were for.
Or, in a zany twist, they might mistake the surviving fragments of a Woody Allen movie as a documentary and elect Mr. Jackson's remains as The Leader.
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This is really a bad idea.
Welcome to the always exciting and perpetually almost ready for prime-time world of biometrics.
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Re:We need to scan everything (Score:2)
Fingerprints can be faked, it is well known with scotch tape and talc powder, noses change over time, and are only useful to weight other factors. Thats why we also scan your tongue, your eyes, and of course your butt. ( Just drop your pants and sit on the butt scanner - no, it's not a photocopier. )
- With apologies to Monsters vs Aliens
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This is perfect... (Score:1)
Roman, Greek, Nubian, Hawk, Snub and Turn-up (Score:4, Funny)
Article? What article? (Score:4, Informative)
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This is actually a good sign. Linking to single stories is fine, but aggregating stories and providing a complete picture in the summary is better than simply picking the juiciest quotes and pretending like it's any sort of value add.
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It's possible because you only read the first of four pages of the article. The four different photos each have a different text beneath them.
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Shame on me for having to double-check... I should have known it's definitely not a kdawson post.
Next exciting biometrics tech: a-hole scanners (Score:2)
Another stupid idea. Next is the ear scanner, the hair scanner, the tooth scanner (all of the above is out in the public, for someone to make a replica of any part of your body that is out in the open, is just a matter of time). Then they'll move to more private areas I guess and then the internal organs, which will of-course go through a phase of vaginal and anal scanners.
This is dumb. Of-course Michael Jackson could use this better than others, he changed his nose shape more often than other people cha
I think they should analyze stool samples... (Score:3, Funny)
It would be just as secure and applying for an ID card would be a real hoot.
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and you know what bad guys do if they don't want a corpse identified that way? Pull the teeth out and throw away separately. You want that done on a living for password retrieval?
DNA (Douglas N Adams, that is) would have loved it (Score:2, Interesting)
This would finally have enabled Douglas Adams to use the awesome power of his nose for the forces of good.
He had a famously large hooter.
See this link [tdv.com] for Douglas's own views on his nose.
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You know that a hooter is actually something else, right?
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Not in the UK.
The second most common cosmetic surgery? (Score:2)
Well done folks... Well done.
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Rhinoplasty makes this pointless.
Rhinoplasty makes this ideal, especially for those who may need to have their identity changed for their own safety, unlike fingerprints or gods forbid a retinal pattern.
It will however lead to more stringent federal regulation of the practice because you can never be allowed to hide your identity from the government.
What about my nose? (Score:3, Funny)
I'm Tycho Brahe, you insensitive clod!
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Then you are a terrorist trying to circumvent an important security measure.
You will tell us everything you know, even if we have to waterboard you until your bladder blows up.
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I'm Tycho Brahe, you insensitive clod!
Sorry sir, but we can't allow you on this flight. Our system identifies you as the evil Lee Marvin from Cat Ballou.
High School just got worse (Score:2, Funny)
Nose job? (Score:2)
Bath, famous for Rugby Football, to ID on NOSES? (Score:4, Insightful)
Lemme get this straight. Bath, a town internationally known for its Rugby Football [wikipedia.org] team, is proposing we use noses for biometric ID?
Rugby being the game for which the phrase "full contact sport" is not so much an understatement as a warning of imminent loss of life? Like American Football only without the pads and helmets? The game where a broken nose is probably the most common injury?
The Bath Rugby team probably have only one intact nose between all 15 players.
Re:Bath, famous for Rugby Football, to ID on NOSES (Score:5, Funny)
And they stole it from an opposing prop forward.
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goon 2 "Your prop forward has no nose?"
goon 1 "My prop forward has no nose!"
goon 2 "How does he smell?"
Fill in the rest your self.
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My thoughts exactly. As an American who has only recently started playing the sport of rugby football, even my limited experience has painfully demonstrated how reconfigurable the human nose is.
As a sidenote, being kicked in the face while laying at the bottom of a ruck sure does make you feel alive =)
Better than the alternative. (Score:3, Funny)
Odd (Score:3, Insightful)
As if the nose were more unique than the rest of the face plus the nose.
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You Know What They Say... (Score:3, Funny)
What about the genitals? (Score:3, Funny)
Come on, TSA!
You've already got the millimeter body scanners rolling out across the US and rest of the world. Kick it up a notch! Go straight for the biometric genital scanning!
Pfft, privacy. You don't need privacy. You need safety. Now drop your drawers!
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Please insert your penis into GILIAN's* mouth and wait while she extracts a DNA sample.
*Government Investigatory Laboratory In Android Nymphomaniac
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You can use the android, I'll take the gynoid.
Please, Oh, Please... (Score:3, Funny)
Don't let the security-crazed among us start thinking about what other stickout-y parts of the human anatomy they could photograph from six angles, digitize and put on our passports. All to keep the children and kittens safe, of course.
When will biometrics go the way of jetpacks? (Score:3, Insightful)
Plastic Surgery (Score:1)
Mistaken Identity (Score:2)
Michael Jackson would've had problems (Score:1, Redundant)
I mean look at how his nose "morphed" over the years! I think some of the shapes it went through weren't even human, not according to this software.
Life mirrors art I guess... (Score:3, Funny)
There was an old cartoon from back in the 80s when the first really painful desktop security measures were put in place... back when people still ran unpatched OSs and downloading updates (via dial-up modem) wasn't common.
I think it was "The Fifth Wave" series. Wish I could find it to post a link.
Basically, it was a manager turning to an employee looking stubborn at his computer terminal and saying "Now c'mon, Bob, you know nose scanning is our best defense against unauthorized computer use!" The nose scanners were cups on thick cords hanging from the ceiling like airline oxygen masks.
Biometrics is a cute marketing trick, but it's no substitute for good security process. That's why I like signing in to my laptop using the "fingerprint" of a small area on the underside of my scrotum. Any legitimate reason to doff one's pants at work is good. "I'm just logging in." or "Whoops, there goes my screensaver. Zzzzzzzip...."
Erik
RTFA before posting the summary (Score:3, Informative)
Did the submitter read the story?
While able to process images more quickly than conventional biometric identification techniques such as whole face recognition, the system's recognition rates were comparatively low and researchers recommend it as an addition to existing biometrics rather than a replacement.
Location Location Location (Score:2)
We have many ways of identifying people; biometrics is only one category. Every means of identifying a person is hackable in some way. I would feel much safer if authentication were based on multiple sources. In particular, GPS tracking, bluetooth presence, facial recognition, each time you enter a password, all should be used to build a continuous track of your location, with confidence ratings as you move between various protocols. Credit card purchases, boarding an airplane, logging in at work; all shoul
Where's Matt Damon? (Score:2)
The nose plays.
Brain Scan (Score:2)
Maybe we should patent the brain scan for ID since that will be the next idea?
I can move my nose... (Score:2)
Seriously — the very tip — kinda like a rabbit does. (It is a real "chick-magnet", BTW.)
When posing for an ID-picture, I always move it a little bit so that it looks a different on the picture from what is is in normal (relaxed) position. I don't think, the described method would identify me from those pictures...
You can train yourself to do it, BTW — an hour or two in front of the mirror and you'll "get it".
It doesn't matter (Score:3, Insightful)
It doesn't really matter what the biometric is of, the whole idea has been shown to fail. It turns out that a key feature necessary for authentication is that a credential can be revoked and a new one issued whenever it has been compromised. That is just not practical for biometrics. If it can be measured, someone can capture that measurement and create a fake.
As shown on Mythbusters, the more expensive the fingerprint reader was, the easier it was to fake it out, but all of them failed one way or another.
If we start lining up and shooting marketing departments, we might one day be able to produce a biometric system that would only fall for very difficult surgical duplications (and so raise the bar quite high), but such systems would likely cost several orders of magnitude more than other equally secure methods that we already have available. Meanwhile, in those few cases where the access is important enough to resort to the surgical approach and someone does so, we're right back to the inability to issue a new ID.
Broken nose? (Score:2)
Broken nose... Lose fingers to a saw... go blind...
It simply stands as a standard that there is no standard that is 100% effective or unbreakable or loss-proof. Things can only be "More Secure" or "Less Secure". Generally the more secure they are, the easier it is to lose them as well.
The only major difference between passwords and biometrics is that one is knowledge-based and one is physical. Neither are fully secure. There is the difference between how easy it is to potentially steal or duplicate some
Unfortunately this Technology (Score:1)
what happens if a person breaks their nose (Score:1)
> but what happens if a person breaks their nose?!"
You just need to phone DHS and reactivate your face.
What about... (Score:1)
Jennifer Grey... (Score:1)
I Boke By Doze. I Boke It Two Tibes. It Beds Fuddy (Score:2)
> but what happens if a person breaks their nose?"
Segmented curvilinear correction. A broken nose only changes shape in the broken spot, almost always the bridge. The majority is intact. The database results will have those hits that match, say, 5 of the 6 measures. Those will then be subjected to 'morphing' within the constraints of the average (more likely within the standard deviation) of how bridges that most often fit with that nose type are bent and in what way. The Segment that doesn't fit will ha
Same old EPIC FAILURE. (Score:2)
Doesn’t matter if it’s any body part, or a card or anything “that you have”. As long as there is no accompanying “that you know”, it’s insecure. Period.
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