Security applications of a remote electric-field sensor technology

A new generation of electric field sensors developed at the University of Sussex is enabling an alternative to contact voltage and non-contact magnetic field measurements. We have demonstrated the capability of this technology in a number of areas including ECG through clothing, remote off-body ECG, through wall movement sensing and electric field imaging. Clearly, there are many applications for a generic sensor technology with this capability, including long term vital sign monitoring. The non-invasive nature of the measurement also makes these sensors ideal for man/machine and human/robot interfacing. In addition, there are obvious security and biometric possibilities since we can obtain physiological data remotely, without the knowledge of the subject. This is a clear advantage if such systems are to be used for evaluating the psychological state of a subject. In this paper we report the results obtained with a new version of the sensor which is capable of acquiring electrophysiological signals remotely in an open unshielded laboratory. We believe that this technology opens up a new area of remote biometrics which could have considerable implications for security applications. We have also demonstrated the ability of EPS to function in closely-packed one and two dimensional arrays for real-time imaging. © 2008 SPIE