Researchers unveil biometric walk scanner

Published 7 June 2011

Researchers from the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom recently unveiled new biometric technology that is capable of identifying individuals by the way they walk; a professor in computer vision at the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, and two PhD students have developed a system that can recognize a person by their gait with over 90 percent accuracy; individuals walking through a “biometric tunnel” were recorded on twelve cameras to create a unique signature that can be used to identify them later; researchers tried to fool the system by wearing different clothes, obscuring their faces with hats and motorcycle helmets, but the biometric system prevailed

Researchers from the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom recently unveiled new biometric technology that is capable of identifying individuals by the way they walk.

Mark Nixon, a professor in computer vision at the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, and two PhD students have developed a system that can recognize a person by their gait with over 90 percent accuracy.

Individuals walking through a “biometric tunnel” were recorded on twelve cameras to create a unique signature that can be used to identify them later.

In a segment aired on the Discovery Channel’s Planet Earth television series, Nixon and his team tried to fool the system by wearing different clothes, obscuring their faces with hats and motorcycle helmets, but the biometric system prevailed.

Nixon said that the system is potentially capable of detecting if a person has padding beneath their clothing which could be used by police to detect if someone is wearing a suicide vest.

“People are unique by quite a variety of different measures, and that rich diversity is fascinating,” Nixon added.