Biometrics

Tired of having to remember PINs, or having a wallet full of plastic cards? Well, if EyeLock has its way, you eventually won't have to. It's created an ATM that has no keypad, card reader or screen. Known as the Irving concept, it utilizes an iris scanner and an app instead.​

​Most fingerprint scanners are usually effective, although they can fail to read prints that have been flattened by age or damaged, plus they can be fooled by gelatine casts of fingerprints. That’s why scientists have developed a more reliable scanner, that looks below the skin's surface.​

A consumer hyperspectral camera known as the HyperCam may one day allow use to see if fruit is ripe, or to identify people based on their veins patterns. It could even find its way into our smartphones.

There are already several methods of identifying cattle – branding, ear tags, tattooing and ear notching all come to mind. Now, however, Egyptian scientists are working on a new biometric system that's less invasive and more difficult to thwart: electronic muzzle-printing.

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed an innovative keyboard that can accurately identify users based on their typing patterns. Not only that, the device can power itself by harvesting the static electricity on your fingertips.

Ralph Lauren clothing has been helping people look slick since 1967, but in the future it may also help you to keep fit. The company has announced a new Polo Tech shirt that monitors biological and physiological information of its wearer. It will be tested out at this year's US Open.

Swedish design company Kosta Boda recently held an art auction where money was irrelevant. In order to win a piece, bidders had to have the most pronounced physiological response upon first seeing it.

Samsung has provided its vision for the future of wearable health devices by unveiling a hardware reference design called Simband. This fitness device concept would be underpinned by a new cloud-based platform called Samsung Architecture for Multimodal Interactions (SAMI).

You might be familiar with password storage services like 1Password or LastPass. They beef up security by letting you create complex passwords that you'll never have to remember. Starting today, Galaxy S5 owners who use LastPass can now use their fingerprints to login to their password vaults.

Described as a "smart wallet," the Wocket is designed to securely store electronic versions of your various cards, plus it features a swipe-able physical card that can be programmed for single uses.

Move over, fingerprints and iris scans, because a new form of biometric identification may soon be joining you – body odor. According to Spanish scientists, peoples' unique BO signatures remain steady enough over time to allow for an ID accuracy rate of approximately 85 percent.

One of the big selling features of phones like the iPhone 5s is their ability to verify the identification of the user by scanning their fingerprint. While those phones use a built-in scanner to do the job, the new ICE Unlock app lets Android mobile devices do the same thing, but using their camera.