We’ve known that our fingerprints are unique to us. No two are alike. The same might go for our breathing patterns. The unconscious rhythms of our inhales and exhales are so unique, in fact, that we might actually be able to identify people based on them alone.
A team of scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute just figured out that a person’s nasal breathing pattern is so distinct, it can be used to identify them with a wildly high 96.8 percent accuracy.
Led by neuroscientist Timna Soroka and her colleagues, outfitted nearly 100 people with a small wearable device that tracked nasal airflow over 24 hours. As is often the case in scientific research, the team wasn’t initially trying to turn our noses into biometric scanners.
Your Breathing Pattern Is Unique To You
The study started off as a look into how our brains interact with scents. Somewhere along the way, the researchers noticed that every person’s breathing had its unique pattern.
Using a protocol called BreathMetrics that analyzes 24 parameters of nasal respiration, the researchers found that after only collecting an hour’s worth of nasal data, they were able to accurately identify people at a rate of 43 percent. That rate shot up to near perfection when they collected 24 hours’ worth of breathing patterns.
While you’re likely now trying to change up your breathing patterns to keep Big Brother on their toes, for now, the technology is not going to be used for IDing people. Breathing patterns correlate with all sorts of metrics, like BMI, our mental health, and our behavior from one minute to the next.
For instance, participants who reported feeling anxious showed shorter inhales and more erratic breathing patterns during sleep. This could be a new tool for diagnosis used to identify all sorts of issues in people. Maybe it can even catch diseases early or help treat conditions by modifying how people breathe.
“You would think that breathing has been measured and analyzed in every way, yet we stumbled upon a completely new way to look at respiration, said neuroscientist Noam Sobel.
The implications are pretty huge: Your breath could become a diagnostic tool, not just a meditative technique or something you hold when passing a garbage truck. The team hopes this line of research could one day help spot diseases early or even treat them by modifying how we breathe.
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