Quantum Biometrics that Exploits the Human Eye’s Ability to Detect Single Photons, may be solution to military and security requirement of hackproof Biometrics

Biometric verification is any means by which a person can be uniquely identified by evaluating one or more distinguishing biological traits. Unique identifiers include fingerprints, hand geometry, earlobe geometry, retina and iris patterns, voice waves, DNA, and signatures. A record of a person’s unique characteristic is captured and kept in a database. Later on, when identification verification is required, a new record is captured and compared with the previous record in the database. If the software matches the data in the new record with that in the database record, the person’s identity is confirmed, it then grants the appropriate level of access.

Fingerprint recognition is one of the oldest, simple to install, and low-cost technology; therefore, it is more commonly used. In travel and immigration, fingerprint recognition technology is used in e-passports, e-visas, and driving licenses to authenticate an individual. In the consumer electronics industry, fingerprint recognition technology is used in laptops, computers, and smartphones, among others. Hence, fingerprint authentication finds numerous applications and is widely adopted by many industries.

Biometric verification has advanced considerably with the advent of computerized databases and the digitization of analog data, allowing for almost instantaneous personal identification. Iris-pattern and retina-pattern authentication methods are already employed in some bank automatic teller machines.

“The demand for military biometrics is primarily rising to offer more technologically advanced methods of ensuring security against terrorist activities,” said a lead TMR analyst. Illegal immigration has been identified as major threat to any country’s security. One of the most effective methods of curbing the same is by creating biometric authentication across borders and airports.

Still, biometric data isn’t 100% secure. Just last year, 5.6 million federal employees’ fingerprint images were stolen. Databases get hacked all the time, from the IRS to Target to hospitals and banks, Universities are hacked every year, medical records, the IRS, banks, dating websites, the list goes on. “Biometric identification (perhaps at range) may strip away the anonymity that enables insurgents to blend into a society –or will allow future adversaries to identify, track, isolate, and target individual U.S. political or military leaders,” writes DOD report.

Researchers at the National Technical University of Athens in Greece led by Michail Loulakis have worked out how to exploit quantum mechanics to securely identify individuals. Quantum biometrics, they say, makes identification more accurate and harder for a malicious user to foil. What’s more, the team uses the laws of physics to quantify exactly how good quantum biometrics can be.