Would You Believe This Body Part Could Be Used to Reveal Your Identity?

"... it is more resistant to spoofing..."

When people think of collecting biometric data for identification, they think eye scans, facial recognition or finger printing. But a new study has revealed that another, more unexpected scan could be more accurate: knee scans.

That's right, your kneecaps are more uniquely identifying than you might think.

Image showing MRI scans of the knee. (Photo: Shutterstock.com)

The research published by computer scientist Lior Shamir of Lawrence Technological University in the International Journal of Biometrics used MRI scans of the knees of more than 2,000 patients to show that the images were about 93 percent accurate at identifying the correct person.

Use of this technology could be more accurate, according to Shamir, than other biometrics because it is harder for people to try and alter.

"Deceptive manipulation requires an invasive and complicated medical procedure, and therefore it is more resistant to spoofing compared to methods such as face, fingerprints, or iris," Shamir said in a statement.

Use of this technology is part of the larger work of internal biometrics, which could be used while people are passing through airport security or entering a secure building to name a couple examples. Using MRI too has fewer health risks compared to X-ray and avoids the scanners that reveal details under clothing like the controversial backscatter machines.

The problem at this point with MRI for these purposes, according to a press release about the research, is that the machines are large and images currently take a relatively long time to process. Imaging knees also wouldn't account for those who have had replacement surgery.

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