Monday, September 01, 2008

Biometrics for the phone platform that no one has yet

Those that don't iPhone, Android.

I'm not part of the iPhone crowd...yet. Mostly thanks to the fact that O2 here in the UK makes you sign up for an 18 month contract and I'm not sure I'll still be living in the UK 18 months from now!

So I've been keeping an eye out for some of the things coming out from Google's Android camp and noticed the BioWallet application today:
BioWallet is basically a “safe wallet” that can store sensitive information (passwords, certificates, documents, conversations, notes, pictures, etc.). This information can only be accessed by the user through iris or handwritten signature based authentication. The data is kept secret even if the device is lost or stolen using strong biometric encryption techniques. Advanced users can also digitally sign their documents or encrypt their communications. Even the phone itself can be protected and unlocked only if the user presents his/her eye or signature.

It would be nice if there was something tangible to play with. I don't know if there's something similar for the iPhone. Like I said, I don't have one and hence have not been browsing the App Store.

If they extended the functionality to integrate seamlessly with some of the things we do online that require authentication, they might be on to something. Perhaps Google should just pay these guys for their technology and build it into Android as standard functionality?

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