Lend me your ears, no really. I need them to ID you.

Researcher Mark Nixon at the University of Southampton “believes that using photos of individual ears matched against a comparative database could be as distinctive a form of identification as fingerprints.”

According to the University’s news site the claim is that: “Using ears for identification has clear advantages over other kinds of biometric identification, as, once developed, the ear changes little throughout a person’s life. This provides a cradle-to-grave method of identification.”

Ok so they are not taking ears. The method involves cameras, scans, and techniques you may know about from facial recognition. This article has a little more detail. As an A.I. system it probably is pretty cool. Still, it sounds so odd that I wonder whether this work has considered the whole piercing, large gauge trend. I can imagine security that now requires removing ear decorations regardless of what they are made of. Also if really used for less invasive ID, will wearing earmuffs be cause to think someone is hiding or should we remember that folks get cold. For the sci-fi inclined, bet that a movie will entail cutting off an ear for identification just like past films have involved cutting off fingers and hands to fake an identity.