Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
The Wisdom Door Knows You
The Wisdom Door is a prototype created by students at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. We're all familiar with key-card doors and other devices that require a special password. The Wisdom Door, however, uses specific biometric information to decide who enters.
(Wisdom door prototype in lab)
This sensor-intensive door doesn't make you stop and identify yourself. Nine different sensors work together to find enough information for identification.
At the top of the door, an ultrasonic sensor beams a signal downward. Bouncing off the top of the head, it comes back, and provides the height of the person.
Four infrared sensors mounted in the door jambs provide a measurement of girth (side-to-side and front-to-back). When a person walks through, the beams are broken at specific points that can be determined. The same sensors find the delay involved in first encountering the infrared sensor beams, and then passing through the door.
Finally, four load sensors in a panel in the floor determine weight. Over time, the system can build up a database of characteristics that identify individuals.
Obviously, this prototype has limits; what if a woman wears high heels, or if a guy wears an especially bulky coat.
Science fiction writer Philip K. Dick had a better idea. In his 1965 story The Zap Gun, one of his characters improves security with a cephalic pattern door:
The doors of Mr. Lars, Incorporated, shut, tuned as they were to his own cephalic pattern.
(Read more about Dick's cephalic pattern door)
The "cephalic pattern" refers to the unique patterns revealed in the electrical signals of a person's brain. Dick was fascinated by this idea; see also his Cephalochromoscope (Cephscope), a fun consumer device.
Read more about smart door that recognizes people.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 2/16/2007)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )
Index of related articles:
Biometric security overview
Biometrics Glossary
Characteristics of successful biometric identification methods
Biometric identification systems
Biometric technology on the leading edge
Biometric identification - advantages
Biometric security and business ethics
Biometric authentication: what method works best?
Iris Recognition
Iris Scan
Related News Stories - (" Engineering ")
Robotic Barber Programmed With a Number of Styles
'He found a barber shop which, he thought, would be good for an idle hour.' - Don Wilcox, 1939.
Centipede Robots Down On The Farm
'...the walking mills of Puffy Products began to tread delicately on their centipede legs across the wheat fields of Kansas.' - Fritz Leiber, 1958.
Vipera Electric Skis From Frigid Dynamics
'JOAN strapped on her power-skis...' - Ursula K. Le Guin, 1964.
Pivotal Blackfly Electric Aircraft Lifts And Hovers
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair...' - RH Roman, 1929.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
Robotic Barber Programmed With a Number of Styles
'He found a barber shop which, he thought, would be good for an idle hour.'
Humanoid Boxing Robot KO's Opponent - It's A Knockout!
'Thirty rounds of fighting is tough work. Even for machines.'
Caterpillar Electric Mining Loader Not Yet Ready For Moon
'...the excavations were already in progress, for he saw gray slopes of rubble.'
Centipede Robots Down On The Farm
'...the walking mills of Puffy Products began to tread delicately on their centipede legs across the wheat fields of Kansas.'
Anthropic's Claude AI Creates Legal Citation From Whole Cloth
'Here is a Clerk that would work incessantly, and neither eat, sleep, want payment, or grumble.'
Students Vie For Lunar Regolith Mining Robot Prize
'About time you got here,' the astronaut said.
'They Erased My Memory' Says Ariana Grande
'...using a neutralizing electronic impulse.'
Solitary Black Hole Wanders In Space
'...the Hole is something like a vortex or a whirlpool?'
Spaceplane From Virgin Atlantic
'ZARNAK, YOU'RE TO COMMAND A SCOUTING EXPEDITION --- FIND OUT WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT!'
DARPA Wants 'Large Bio-Mechanical Space Structures'
'These are your rudimentary seed packages... Some will combine in place to form more complicated structures.'
Robot Hand Creeps Along, Separate From It's Owner
'The crawling... object was V-Stephen's surgeon-hand...'
Taikonauts Exercise In China's Tiangong Space Station
'Joe got out the gravity-simulator harnesses...'
Korean Exoskeleton Suit F1 Helps You Put It On
'Better late than never.'
Have AI Researchers Given Up On 'Bio-Babies'?
'You couldn't have the capstone without the pyramid to hold it up.'
Bunker Busters and Bore-Pellets
'The first revelation of the new Soviet bore-pellets.'
'Spikeless' Brand Swizzle Stick Detects Spiked Drinks
'the unobtrusive inspections with tiny remote-cast snoopers...'
