"Lend Me an Ear"
The continued advancement of the Internet of Things will expand the use of biometrics. Fingerprint sensing, iris scanning, and facial recognition are biometrics commonly implemented in smartphones for authentication. Retina scanning, vein recognition, and palm print recognition are other forms of biometric authentication methods expected to grow in popularity. Research recently published in the Journal of Electronic Imaging proposes using ear recognition as an alternative biometric identification method to improve the security of smart homes via smartphones. Researchers at the University de Tunis El Manar propose an approach to ear recognition for smart home access that involves the combination of local and frequency domain features. Distinct ear features such as the helix, concha, intertragic notch, and more, can be fused into an identifying feature through a number of estimations and extractions. This article continues to discuss the most common forms of biometrics, the growing importance of incorporating biometrics into smart homes, the proposed use of the earprint as an alternative to other popular biometrics, the advantages of using the earprint, and the results from the recent study on ear recognition.