(Describer) In an animation, streams of light collide to create a globe filled with water. Title: Science Nation. Fingers type on a keyboard.
(male narrator)
Tired of fumbling
for computer passwords?
Weary of worrying that hackers
might steal your identity?
Well, get an eyeful of this.
(male with Russian accent)
Biometrics is a science
that studies
identification of a person
based on what the person is,
not based on what person
remembers, such as a password.
(Describer) A man rests his head in a clamp so a computer can track his eye.
(narrator)
With support from the
National Science Foundation,
computer scientist
Oleg Komogortsev
and a team
at Texas State University
are making identity recognition
more secure, more reliable,
and nearly impossible
to fool or spoof.
(male)
For my technology
to work together
with eyes recognition
technology,
you don't need
new hardware.
You just, basically,
do the software upgrade,
and now you have all
the traditional information.
So now you can do
much more.
(narrator)
Komogortsev and company
are developing a three-layered
multi-biometric approach
that incorporates dynamic
eye tracking.
In addition to scanning
patterns in the iris,
the colored part
of the eye,
their system tracks
movement of the eye globe
and its muscles,
and monitors how and where
a person's brain focuses
visual attention.
That means tracking how
the eyes move
when watching action
like this video clip,
as well as tracking
subtle eye movements
when looking at flashing dots
on a computer screen.
Everyone looks at things just
a little bit differently.
(male)
The eyes can provide
the very fast screening--
fast identification
of a person.
Our technology
can identify
if a person's trying
to spoof the system.
(Describer) Komogortsev plays a video game.
(narrator)
Komogortsev didn't set out
to be a biometrics guru.
As a grad student working
on a biomathematical model
of the human eye, he was also
an avid computer gamer,
and he wanted access
to a prerelease
of Blizzard Entertainment's
"World of Warcraft."
That was going
to cost him $17,000.
(male)
So $17,000 was a fortune.
I wanted to play that game
and I was already researching
eye movement.
So I wrote a proposal
to Blizzard
that said that I would allow
disabled users
who cannot use their arms
to play the game.
How?
By moving their eyes.
(narrator)
And with that,
ideas for new applications,
based on his modeling,
started flowing.
He says multi-biometric
systems like his
will eventually pay off
in ways
far beyond gaming
and computer security.
(male)
Now you can detect
not only the identity,
but the state
of the person,
that being fatigue
or stress,
or if the person has
had alcohol.
You can use this technology
to detect concussions.
We would put
this technology
in the helmet
of football players.
(narrator)
So with these extra layers
of security,
are biometrics ready
to go mainstream?
I think the ayes [eyes]
have it.
(Describer) A globe turns beside the title.
For Science Nation,
I'm Miles O'Brien.
