Electronic equipment now identifies its owner based on his or her gait. An identification method developed by the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) can be used to prevent unauthorized use of a laptop or mobile phone.

"The benefits of the identification system for the user are increased security and a reduction of risks in situations where a laptop, mobile phone or other digital equipment has fallen into the wrong hands," says Heikki Alist, a research professor at VTT.

The identity of a mobile phone user can be verified before the phone can be used for banking transactions. Compared with passwords and the traditional bio-identification, the method is simple: confirmation of identity takes place as a background process without the user noticing.

"In the future even a credit card will be able to recognize the identity of its user from the latter's movement before the payment transaction is approved."

Equipment measures walking

Equipment that identifies its owner is fitted with sensors. In normal use the equipment measures the walker's gait all the time and compares the measured characteristics with values that are in a memory. If they are sufficiently similar, the user is recognized and approved. If the values are different, standard password-identification is available.

Gait-based identification is based on advanced computation. In initial tests the identification rate was over 90%. The solution is being patented at the moment. "The first applications may come within two years," Ailisto promises.

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"The identity of a mobile phone user can be verified before the phone can be used for banking transactions," says Research Professor Heikki Ailisto.