Heartbeat Identification

Another example of pattern recognition,  here with lasers at a distance.

The Pentagon can now identify people by measuring their heartbeats in DigitalTrends
pentagon heartbeat identification

As if facial recognition and digital fingerprinting weren’t scary enough, the Pentagon has reportedly developed a method for identifying and tracking people through their heartbeat.

Heartbeats are as unique and distinctive as fingerprints, but are distinct in that they can be read from a distance. And it’s this that the Pentagon is taking advantage of, according to a report in the MIT Technology Review.

Developed for identifying combatants in war zones, the idea is to identify individuals by listening in to their cardiac signatures using an infrared laser. Unlike other identification methods like facial recognition, it’s impossible to disguise a heartbeat in any way. The laser method also works through clothing at a distance of up to 200 meters (219 yards). In the future, this range could be extended to be even longer.

“I don’t want to say you could do it from space,” Steward Remaly of the Pentagon’s Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office told the MIT Technology Review, “but longer ranges should be possible.”  ... "