Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology

Just like a special snowflake, your tuckus has its own unique pattern. Shigeomi Koshimizu of Japan’s Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology has a developed a chair that can identify people’s rear-ends to do things like start a car or log into a computer.

According to Nikkei, it works by recording data from 360 different pressure points located under the seat, with each point measured on a scale of 0 to 256. The data is then sent to a computer which can recognize individuals with 98% accuracy.

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Why develop this technology when fingerprint and iris scanners already exist? Because those scanners can be easily influenced by environmental factors (greasy fingers and low light, respectively) while–unless you have a giant George Costanza wallet in your back pocket–there is very little to interfere with a chair measuring the pressure you create while sitting down.

Koshimizu hopes to collaborate with automakers and get this technology in cars within two or three years.

[via CNET]

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