Can you hear me now? Good. Now, unlock that phone. University at Buffalo computer scientist Zhanpeng Jin and his team have developed EarEcho, a biometric tool that can authenticate smartphone users via their wireless earbuds. The tool uses unique geometry of human ear canals. “It doesn’t matter what the sound is, everyone’s ears are different and we can show that in the audio recording,” Jin said. “This uniqueness can lead to a new way of confirming the identity of the user, equivalent to fingerprinting.” (link)