Gait recognition is new security tool

MYSORE, India, June 11 (UPI) -- Scientists in India say they have developed biometric gait recognition software that could improve remote security surveillance.

Biometrics is commonly associated with retinal scans, iris recognition and DNA databases but the researchers said their software can identify suspects by their characteristic gait.

C. Nandini of the Vidya Vikas Institute of Engineering & Technology and C. N. Ravi Kumar of the S.J. College of Engineering in Mysore, India, said that viewed from the side, every person has a unique gait that makes them easily recognizable.

The researchers said gait recognition has a significant advantage over such well-known biometrics as fingerprinting and iris scanning in that it is entirely unobtrusive and can be used to identify an individual at a considerable distance from a restricted security area.

The research is reported in the inaugural issue of The International Journal of Biometrics.