EEG Identification System can Steal All Your Secrets from the Brain

Numerous efforts seek to outperform one another, conceitedhow precisely and efficiently they can examine a person’s identity utilizing electroencephalograph or EEG data. For instance, a group in New York accomplished 100 percent precision at recognizing individuals utilizing a skullcap with 30 electrodes.

Still, our brains do not generate a clear, single message that can be identified like a fingerprint. Rather, they release a vibrant, messy symphony of private information, comprising one’s emotional state, learning potential and personality characteristics. As EEG headsets the technology has become portable, more ubiquitous and cheaper – not just for identity authentication, but in applications for examining relaxation levels and playing games and more. Also, there is a possibility that someone will strike into that concerto of data for mischevious purposes.

“If you possess apps, you might not know what the app is recording from your brain or how the brain is going to use that data for, but you might know they are going to possess a huge volume of information,” says Abdul Serwadda, a cyber-security scientist at the Texas Tech University.

A graduate student Richard Matovu and Serwadda currently played the role of a devil advocate to identify if they could extract sensitive private information from brain data gathered by two common EEG based authentication systems. As a surprise, they made it possible as Serwadda presented the information at the 8^th International Conference on Biometrics held in Buffalo, New York.

Matovu and Serwadda intended to see if such markers also comprised sensitive private information – in such case, a potential for alcoholism. They place each system to examine theworking of a conventional medical dataset of EEG scans from a team of alcoholics and non-alcoholics. “We were not surprised as we are aware that the signals of thebrain are rich in information,” says Serwadda. “But it is tricky, the wearable brain measurement, like an application that is close to going the mainstream and you can gather a huge amount of data from users.”

The data collected is not constrained to just alcohol use. Nastythird parties could source brain data to create inferences about the mental illnesses, learning disabilities and more, claims Serwadda. “Think of if you could make things public and insurance entities became aware of them,” he claims. “It would be awful.”

Unfortunately, the scientists do not still have a solution for how to avail information – though in the research, including a small knowledge on authentication precision did diminish the potential to identify who was an alcoholic. Serwadda expects other scientific groups will now consider privacy and not just precision into account when enhancing such devices.

Conclusion

Doing this is specifically vital with functional near-infrared spectroscopy. In comparison to the EEG, fNIRS estimates brain activity with a vitally better signal – to – noise ratio. Although it is quite expensive, prices systems groundedin the technology have instigated to reduce. According to Serwadda, “We have to get ready for the motion of brain wave into our everyday lives.”