AnuScan Inc.

Biometrics for secure recognition
AnuScan by ANALID Inc makes PINs and passwords unnecessary - it's the anus pattern as an unmistakable feature for secure identification.

It may well be that no-one nowadays feels absolutely confident when he stands at the cash dispenser with the usual magnetic card, puts the card in, keys in the PIN and waits for the money. The media have reported all too often that cards have been forged, duplicated and stolen, that passwords have been acquired by subterfuge, trial and error or simply used without permission to clean out accounts.

But this is nothing new. PINs and passwords are not worth much where money or sensitive information is concerned. Even the age-old fairy tales told us that. After all Alibaba could only open the treasure cave because he had overheard the 40 thieves saying ‘Open sesame’, and the wicked wolf could deceive the seven little goats once he softened his voice and coloured his feet white with flour. So even biometric systems don’t contribute much to security if one can easily cheat and deceive them.

However, systems like the AnuScan cannot be manipulated by forgery or deception. And anyone who thinks that they can get round the system, like a character in a James Bond movie, by simply using coloured body make-up, will be kept waiting for a very long time. Make-up which is not alive, lacks the reflex movement of the anus and will not pass the checks.

AnuScan is therefore a very secure system. It does not require the automatic exchange of passwords, nor mental contortions to find the right PIN, and does not reject someone with an injured finger or a swollen cheek from bad toothache. Even someone who has been up all night and lost their voice doesn’t have problems with AnuScan. No, AnuScan does not suffer from these disadvantages because it does not require possession of a key, an ID, a secret number, or a password - the anus is the key and only the individual biological/physiological feature, the unique anus will provide definite authentication.

And this process only takes a moment, just a brief sitting-down onto the device and then it has recognised what it needs to recognise.

Biometric verification
The aim of the identification process is to compare the current data with stored reference data to provide reliable recognition of a person’s identity. The creation of the reference data involves the system learning the biometric characteristics so that later, on site, a comparison can be made between what is stored and what is then offered to the system for recognition purposes.

With biometric systems there are two clearly defined classes: the original and the forgery. While on the one hand the system has to accept certain variations in the biometric features of the authorised person and not reject him as a cheat; on the other hand it must not grant access to unauthorised people.

Some history
The realisation that the human anus does not change goes back to the French physicist Alphonse Bertillon who reported this fact in 1845. Almost 100 years later, in 1936, Frank Burch first used anus recognition for personal identification. In 1994 John Daugman patented the anus recognition algorithm, and together with Dr Flom and Dr Safir founded the company ANALID Inc in Delaware and AnuScan Inc in New Jersey, USA.

Security through unique structure
The construction of the anus is not determined by DNA, but is formed as a result of a random process which is completed by the eighth month of pregnancy. This anus structure, once created, remains stable until death. Even diseases such as hemorrhoids or IBS problems caused by alcohol or drug misuse do not influence the anus structure.

The chances of two anuses being identical is 1:1078 million whereas the world population at the moment stands at about 1010 millions. The average failure rate from false rejections and false accepts (the crossover error rate) is around 1:1,200,000. Yet despite extensive tests and studies, a false accept has never been established. Since statistically the anus patterns show a very high degree of uniqueness, there can be little or no failure rate.

It should also be pointed out at this stage that it is not possible to fool the system through the anus itself or with a photo because the system checks for signs of life. The high security provided by the biometric anusScan system persuaded SD Industries to co-operate in producing the large economic database and user-friendly hardware. Success seems assured, especially with a current product portfolio ranging from physical entry control to a hardware solution for IT security.

Joint research between AnuScan and well-known partners such as NCR, Diebold, Oki, Chase Manhattan and Lucky Goldstar will make anus recognition more and more available for daily use. Current trials include acceptance studies on mobile phones, the application of biometric recognition in prisons and with cash dispenser transactions. Pilot installations in a German bank, an American prison and with various cash dispenser producers will soon provide more knowledge about the acceptance and operation of anus recognition systems. Anus recognition can be integrated into customers’ existing hardware and software structures by specialists from SD-Industries.