Quantum Biometrics with Retinal Photon Counting
Abstract
It is known that the eye's scotopic photodetectors, rhodopsin molecules, and their associated phototransduction mechanism leading to light perception, are efficient single-photon counters. We here use the photon-counting principles of human rod vision to propose a secure quantum biometric identification based on the quantum-statistical properties of retinal photon detection. The photon path along the human eye until its detection by rod cells is modeled as a filter having a specific transmission coefficient. Precisely determining its value from the photodetection statistics registered by the conscious observer is a quantum parameter estimation problem that leads to a quantum secure identification method. The probabilities for false-positive and false-negative identification of this biometric technique can readily approach 10-10 and 10-4, respectively. The security of the biometric method can be further quantified by the physics of quantum measurements. An impostor must be able to perform quantum thermometry and quantum magnetometry with energy resolution better than 10-9ℏ , in order to foil the device by noninvasively monitoring the biometric activity of a user.
- Publication:
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Physical Review Applied
- Pub Date:
- October 2017
- DOI:
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1704.04367
- Bibcode:
- 2017PhRvP...8d4012L
- Keywords:
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- Quantum Physics;
- Mathematics - Probability;
- Physics - Biological Physics;
- Physics - Computational Physics;
- Physics - Optics
- E-Print:
- 16 pages, 4 figures