Google-owned tech company, Motorola has unveiled a prototype vitamin tablet which enables your entire body to function as an authentication token.
The pill was introduced by Regina Dugan, former director of the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) and current head of Motorola's research division.
It highlights the fact that hacking is a major concern as we conduct more and more of our business online and that many companies are investigating or implementing alternative authentication strategies to the straightforward username/password scenario. "I take a vitamin every morning, what if I could take vitamin authentication?" Dugan asked onstage at the D11 conference. She then went on to describe the device as "my first super power".
The tablets contain a small chip with a switch and something that amounts to an inside-out potato battery. After swallowing it the acids in your stomach act as electrolytes, which power the battery and turn the switch on and off in a sequence.
The result is that your body contains an 18-bit ECG-like signal, which can be picked up by devices and used as an authentication method.
The tablets are already manufactured for medical purposes by a company called Proteus and have been cleared by the FDA. Dugan didn't comment on the biological specifics but it is logical to assume that the life of the token would therefore correspond with the pace of your digestive tract.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
