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Breath to unlock smartphone?Technology Recently, Kyushu University and the University of Tokyo have jointly developed a new security method based on breath to unlock phones. According to the authors of the study, similar to faces, fingerprints, or irises, each person's breath is unique and cannot be replicated, making it a suitable choice for a security method.
The question posed in breath security method is how to recognize it. While old security methods all have in common the 'scanning' for recognition, from scanning irises, fingerprints to faces,... but how do you 'scan' breath?
Before delving into how breath recognition technology works, we need to understand the 'electronic nose' or e-nose technology. This technology acts as an electronic sensor to replicate smell and taste based on chemical reaction mechanisms in the sensors and converts signals into digital form so that the device can officially recognize what smell or taste it is.
Returning to breath recognition technology on smartphones, based on advancements from 'electronic noses', now to identify individual breaths, sensors will rely on specific chemical components in breath, enabling recognition of whose breath is whose, despite both individuals eating the same food and exhaling the same breath, this technology will still distinguish.
According to announcements from two Japanese universities, there are at least 28 compounds in a single breath. To analyze accurately, inventors have utilized scent-detecting sensors with 16 channels, each channel capable of detecting multiple scents simultaneously. After collecting scent data from users, this information will be synthesized and machine learning will be used to analyze detailed components in those scent compounds to complete breath analysis.
As stated by researchers, the accuracy rate of this breath recognition technology reaches up to 97.8%. In terms of statistics, this technology currently lags behind 3D face recognition (peaking at 99.97%) and followed by fingerprint recognition (98.6%). However, this is just the beginning of breath recognition technology; in the future, accuracy could be significantly improved.
Is this method truly becoming common on smartphones? Or is it a 'flop'?This technology is still in its infancy stage. Honestly speaking, the future of breath recognition remains unclear because investment in developing and upgrading current security technology is still substantial and the issue lies in the process of integrating components into phones.
Currently, scent-detecting sensor models are still quite rudimentary and their sizes are not yet optimized. Mostly because this technology hasn't received much attention leading to no significant leap in its development. To integrate into a smartphone, this security component needs to be minimized to the smallest size, comparable to current fingerprint or face sensors which are the most optimized.
Next, this technology must align with how users typically use smartphones, meaning it can unlock at a natural phone-holding distance rather than having to press the phone close to breathe.
Putting aside compatibility issues on phones, this technology also has to 'compete' with other security technologies in terms of development level. Currently, fingerprint technology on smartphones has matured, while face recognition technology is increasingly being improved in terms of size reduction and accuracy enhancement. Scent-detecting sensors need to keep up with the progress of these 'rival' technologies while still in its nascent stage, requiring significant investment of capital and time for exploitation.
Not just confined to smartphonesSo if not applied on smartphones, will this technology 'die'? Perhaps not, there is another field suitable for breath recognition, that is IoT devices. Fingerprints are out? Now it's breath opening doors, providing passwords for smart home devices through breath, quite convenient.
No security technology is flawless, high-security like face recognition will encounter difficulties in integrating components and occupying front surface area, fingerprints will have inherent issues with sensor recognition and accuracy, while breath might risk being 'smelled' by electronic devices? Who knows.
This new security technology fundamentally ensures us about security and convenience in unlocking. However, the information we currently know is only rudimentary according to announcements from research of two universities. There are more concerns that need to be addressed such as whether husbands might be secretly unlocking phones while sleeping, or if the device might unlock at unwanted times?
It may take more time for us to truly see breath security in action beyond theory.
- Read more: Nearly a decade since its debut, under-screen fingerprint feature on smartphones is still 'stuck in place'
