Identification

If someone steals your smartphone, the harder it is for them to unlock it, the better. New research shows how gait analysis could provide an added layer of security, by authenticating a user's identity based on the way they walk.

Ordinarily, if you want to check if two plants of the same species come from genetically different populations, you have to analyze their DNA. A new study, however, has found that an analysis of their leaves is a much quicker and easier alternative.

In a busy workshop, it's possible to lose track of what substance a given sheet of material is composed of – making it risky to cut with a laser. SensiCut is designed to help, by identifying 30 different materials based on their surface qualities.

Just like our fingerprints, the shape and pattern of each dog's nose is unique to that animal. Bearing this in mind, pet food company Iams has launched a "nose-centric" app for identifying lost dogs – appropriately enough, it's called NOSEiD.

Although an increasing number of countries are switching to sturdier, harder-to-copy polymer banknotes, the things still are being counterfeited. A new technology could help weed those fakes out, by taking their fingerprints.

Although facial ID verification tech may seem pretty impressive, it can be thwarted. An experimental new system is claimed to be more foolproof, by requiring users to make specific facial movements.

It sometimes seems that as soon as another form of biometric ID authentication is developed, someone devises a way of fooling it. According to its creators, however, a new 3D finger vein-scanning system cannot be duped.

It's important to track the whereabouts of endangered black rhinos, but doing so in the wilds of Namibia can be difficult – particularly if you don't want to tag the animals. That's where a new footprint identification system is made to come in.

If you saw a finch once, chances are you'd have great difficulty picking it out from a group of finches later on. A new AI-based system can do just that, though, potentially making life much easier for both biologists and the birds that they study.

If you were studying the diet of ancient humans, it certainly wouldn't help if you got their preserved feces confused with those of their dogs. A new analytical system known as coproID is designed to keep that from happening.

Finding a person's fingerprints at a crime scene isn't always enough to convict them, as they can claim that those prints were left before the crime took place. That may be about to change, as scientists have devised a method of dating fingerprints.

Might it be possible that someday, an official might get you to dance around in order to confirm that you're really you? Perhaps not, but nonetheless, a study has determined that people's identities can be matched to their unique style of dancing.