Biological metadata?
I think Mandy already posted about this, but I just have to say, this is wild:
http://www.photographybay.com/2008/02/09/canon-iris-registration-watermark/
Basically, Canon (the film/ camera/ copier/ printer people) has applied for a patent for a new type of watermarking technology, a form of copyright for digital images. What is the watermark, you ask?
Why, it’s your iris. In your eye.
Apparently, the technology, once added to Canon’s digital cameras, will allow you to take a picture of your iris. It would then embed the iris info into the image file, so that it will be invisible to viewers. How they’re going to translate your iris to digital information, I’m not quite sure.
This reminds me of the sci-fi movies where they scan your iris as another form of identification. How wild is that?
Just think: the picture you take will not only represent what your eye sees, but it will also be copyrighted by your eye.
Tags: biological metadata, Canon iris registration mode, digital image copyright, Metadata
February 15th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
This comment from “Fred” on the article Web site is interesting, and he is right about using the iris for security purposes. Cannon just hacked iris security:
“Fred on February 15th, 2008 9:02 am
[A] hacker or an expert thief could really make some good use of this new technology.
for example:
John works in this company, which he uses his eye scan to gain certain access.
A hacker could follow him for many days, and one weekend day, while taking his kids to the park, the hacker comes to him and ask him to take a picture for him.
in that process he could hack the camera to scan his iris and then later use it to gain access in the company he uses…
haha
sound kind of science fiction right?
but u never know.”
February 19th, 2008 at 10:20 am
That is an interesting scenario. Will it become just a given that we not “share cameras” anymore?
Susan