That which we call a nose…

Biometrics has been the subject of a huge amount of research effort over the years. Eyes, ears, fingers, the face and even our gait have all been explored as characteristics that could be used to identify individuals, but until now I hadn’t seen nose recognition on the list.

Boffins at two British universities, Bath and UWE, are using the “shape from shading” technique to quantify one of our most distinctive features – our noses. Shape from shading is a way of extracting 3D information about a surface and it’s an area Dr. Melvyn Smith of UWE has been exploring for many years.

In favor of this identification technique is that it’s fast and pretty non-intrusive. The negative that I see is how it deals with people wearing glasses. These tend to obscure the bridge of the nose, which is one of the regions used in the recognition process. I also wonder how it copes with someone who has a cold. Does a blocked-up nose change shape? These are the questions that Dr. Smith and his colleagues will have to answer.