Taking a daily vitamin could do more than give you an extra kick of vitamin D or C in the morning. Soon, it could also boost your online security, becoming an authentication token you could never lose.
At the D11 conference in California today, Motorola unveiled a “vitamin authentication” tablet powered by the acid in your stomach that turns you into a human authentication token.
Regina Dugan, Motorola’s senior vice president for advanced technology and products and a former director of DARPA, described the little pill as “my first super power,” according to Wired UK.
“Authentication is irritating,” she said. “After 40 years of advances in computation, we’re still authenticating basically the same way we did years ago.”
The FDA-approved tablet, made by Proteus Digital Health, contains a small chip that can be switched on an off by your stomach acid, creating an 18-bit ECG-like signal that would let you authenticate your identity just by touching your phone, your computer or your car.
Motorola has successfully completed a demo of the tablet authenticating a phone, but CEO Dennis Woodside said it wouldn’t be shipping anytime soon.
Smart pills have previously been developed as a way to transmit health information straight from your body to your doctor, and to remind patients with chronic diseases to take their medication . And now maybe they can make not getting hacked a little more convenient, too.
