Philip Pulman created a fantasy world where everybody had an animal, or daemons, that followed them around and represented character’s souls. One of these novels, The Golden Compass, was made into a film and released in theaters last year.
Two university professors want to take this idea and use it to solve security and identity theft problems, according to a report in the Press Association UK. Pamela Briggs, a psychologist specializing in trust at Northumbria University, has worked with computer scientist Patrick Olivier from Newcastle University in developing the idea.
They want to create devices call biometric daemons that would carry individual’s personal details and replace pin numbers and passwords for everyday transactions. They would also react to different levels of risk and becoming stressed and eventually die if apart from their owner.
Briggs and Olivier have spoken to Nokia about the idea and see a future “where the owner grows to nurture the device over many years, and grow to love the daemon more than a humble credit card.” ![[end]](/resources/bullet/archive-4.gif)
