What the way you walk can reveal about you

The unique way someone walks can betray who they are with almost as much accuracy as fingerprints, scientists have found.

Researchers have developed a method that can identify a unique "pressure signature" in their footsteps.

By analysing more than 100,000 pressure points created by people's feet as they walk, the scientists were able to pinpoint 70 key patterns that are unique to an individual.

They hope the system could provide a new form of "biometric" identification that could work alongside retinal scanning and fingerprints at airports. The only snag is that the system can only identify people if they are not wearing shoes.

Dr John Goulermas, an electrical engineer at the University of Liverpool, said they were hoping to develop the system so it will work when people are wearing shoes too.

He said: "This is more complicated as the stiffness of the sole and the treads can change things, but it should still be possible.

"At the moment there is a key point when people go through airport security where they have to remove their shoes to walk through the scanners and so by incorporating pressure pads into the floor it would be possible to identify individuals."

The researchers asked 104 volunteers to walk across boards studded with thousands of highly sensitive pressure sensors. They recorded ten steps per person and then analysed how each persons step changed to produce a unique profile for each person.

When asked to then identify individuals from their footsteps, the system was correct 99.6 per cent of the time.

Researchers have been investigating the unique aspects of gait for some time and many attempts have been made to use computer recognition software to detect individuals from CCTV footage of them walking.

These tend to have only moderate accuracy and are right around three quarters of the time.

Dr Todd Pataky, who led the research at Liverpool University but has since moved to Shinshu University in Tokida, Japan, added: "If we see a family member or a friend from a distance we can identify that person based on their walk.

"Our feet are the only parts of our body that interact with the environment during walking so it is logical that an individuals unique movement patterns are transmitted vial the feet to the ground.

"We are currently working on other checking whether other information can be unravelled from foot pressures, including things like gender, age, and exercise levels, but we expect that these characteristics will not be as well classified."


/The Telegraph/