More research using ears as identifiers shows low false positives

Researchers continue to look at human ears as a biometric identifier and the results continue to look promising.

A new, multi-ethnic study in the science journal Morphologie sampling 2,225 photos of the outside portions of ears showed a false-positive ID rate of less than 0.00007. Researchers said they even differentiated between identical twins, unlike face biometrics.

Subjects numbering 1,411 (633 females, 778 males) from Turkey, South Africa, Russia, Japan, India and Brazil volunteered. The database included 1,091 right ears and 1,134 left.

Mean ages in countries varied from 20 years old in South African subjects to 55 for Japanese subjects. No one with facial trauma or birth abnormalities was studied.

The 14-person research team was just as diverse as the sample. Scientists were from Switzerland, Italy, Brazil, Turkey, Australia, Japan and Russia.

Ear photos were quartered to simplify scientific assessment before edges for the four regions (helix, antihelix, concha and lobe) were recorded. Anatomic ratios were calculated and converted into an eight-digit biometric code.

The project assumed, without evidence, that no two people will have the same code, prompting the researchers involved to call for tests of that foundation.

Article Topics

biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  biometrics research  |  ear recognition