09/05/2002

By Sherrie Adcock, Voice Security Systems Inc.
September 5, 2002

I went to see the Minority Report on July 20th, I was not surprised to see all of the biometric technology used in the movie. The setting of the movie was in the year 2046. The major focuses of the biometrics were at the eyes.

It appeared to be an iris scan, although the bright lights used were more indicative of a retina scan. There were some interesting issues with when they put him (Tom Cruise's character) on the list of criminals, yet they did not take his prints out of the systems that allowed access to his work environment. This also seemed to be a very intrusive manner of tracking an individual with the little spider type robots that lift you eyelids and shine a bright light in your eye to do the verification. I did not see the form of verification as a positive experience.

I hope that the future does not turn into the pop up ads that recognize you and announce your name and purchasing habits using any of your bio-prints. This would be very annoying. It made sense to me that one of the characters had had his eyes removed. In reality, iris systems can typically only detect your prints from a relatively small group of say 1000 people or so, due to data compression losses during template storage.

They did use voice, which I presumed would be speaker dependant verification technology (not to be confused with speech recognition or speaker identification) to opening of door to the home of the main character (Tom Cruise). "I'm Home" spoken by his (Tom Cruise's) character presumably de-activated any security system and adjusted the lights and music. This type of technology can be employed today. Interesting that they never showed how the detective was able to break in to gather evidence without somehow fooling the voice system, as this is nearly impossible with our systems even if you know the correct phrase, use recordings, etc.

I did not see any hand scans or fingerprint systems, which did, left me a bit puzzled. I suspect that fingertips and their fingerprints are far more likely to be surgically transplanted for biometric tomfoolery a lot sooner than eye transplants. The medical science necessary is ready now...we just have to find a agent who is willing to sacrifice the first joint of their finger(s) for the Mission and we have to assume that there is sufficient time for healing and physical therapy. We pose the technology today to replace entire hands, limbs as well as transplant eyes. To my knowledge, no one has found a way to transplant a voiceprint. Unlike all other biometrics, which once breached are stolen forever, simply changing ones phrase can easily change voiceprints. You can't surgically implant a performance based biometric (like voice).

I did like the way the cars traveled on the guide and seemed to know what directions to take. The movie did not expand on how this technology was deployed. Although Lexus appeared to have a monopoly! All in the entire movie was what it should be... entertaining.

Sherrie Adcock, of Voice Security Systems Inc., can be reached by e-mail at: sherrie@voice-security.com. She can be reached by phone at 949-493-4030. For more information, please visit: http://www.voice-security.com.