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New lab working on security shoe sole to ID people, experts say it raises privacy questions

Published on July 21, 2012; Published on July 21, 2012

Topics :: Carnegie Mellon University , Electronic Frontier Foundation , PITTSBURGH , U.S.

PITTSBURGH, Pa. - High-tech security? Forget those irksome eye scans. Meet the biometric shoe.

A new lab at Carnegie Mellon University is working on shoe insoles that monitor access to high-security areas, like nuclear power plants.

The idea is based on research showing that people have unique feet and ways of walking. Sensors in the footpad collect data and check the patterns.

The lab is a partnership with Autonomous ID, a Canadian company that is relocating to the U.S. President Todd Gray says he saw the potential in a maternity ward decorated with representations of baby feet along a wall.

One expert says the technology sounds impressive, but it could raise privacy questions.

Attorney Lee Tien with the Electronic Frontier Foundation says any biometric device is a potential tracking device.

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