you’ve been questioning which body part will be called into action to verify our identity next, then wonder no more, because NEC says it’s developing a technology that will use our ears as a biometric authentication method. That’s right. Forget fingers, eyes, or voice; you could be proving your identity using your lugholes.

Here’s how it works. According to NEC, the shape of our inner ear is unique, as are the acoustics that are generated by it. Therefore sounds collected by listening to the ear will be different for everyone. Don’t worry, NEC’s not suggesting you rub your ear against your phone to unlock it, but instead plans to make special earphones that also have a built-in microphone.

Related: More companies are looking to use voice authentication to prevent fraud


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In less than a second, the speaker pumps an audio snippet into your ear, and the mic listens for these specific acoustic characteristics that return, while filtering out any unwanted noise, ready to identify you. If you’re wondering how accurate this type of biometric authentication method is, NEC says it’s at least 99-percent.

Although the idea of using our ears to unlock a phone seems a little bit slow and awkward compared to a fingerprint, NEC’s technology makes sense for other applications. For example, for private business conducted over the phone — calls from banks, or from lawyers, perhaps — NEC’s security earbuds could ensure information is only relayed to the correct person. No need for all those questions and passwords anymore. From a security and anti-fraud perspective, it makes good sense.

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Although it’s not mentioned, there may be a chance the tech could be integrated into a mobile phone’s speaker system, ready to make and receive calls safe in the knowledge you’re talking to exactly the right person. However, NEC’s research doesn’t say to accurately capture the necessary sounds, it requires insertion directly into the ear. The intention is to have the tech ready for commercial use in 2018.

Also watch: Doppler Labs’ Here Active Listening System Hands-On Review

Companies generally try to sell connected coffee makers with the promise of brewing from bed — provided you load it up with grounds and water before you went to sleep. Of course, there are already programmable devices that let you set it to start making you coffee at 7:00 a.m., or whatever ungodly hour you wake up. The Behmor Brewer is offering something different: The ability to control all the details of your cup of coffee from a smartphone. If you’ve never thought about water temperature and pre-soak time before, the Behmor might just be the gateway brewer that gets you nerdy about Java.

One of the most striking things about the Behmor is its simple interface. If you walk up to it, you really only have one choice: Press the start/stop button. Everything else happens in the app. This is no mistake, as the engineers at Dado — the company that makes the Behmor’s software — told me that the instant you put a screen on a machine, it starts to look dated. Instead, Dado puts all the functionality in the app. That’s both good and bad. If your Internet goes out, you’ll still get a really good cup of coffee, but you’ll miss out being able to set it to your specifications. On the other hand, Dado can continually deliver updates that improve on the coffee maker’s performance without worrying about outdated software.

The coffee maker is so intuitive, there’s really only one button to press: start.

The first way you can use the app is to do a barebones, just-the-facts-ma’am approach. This is the “brew” button. It takes you to a screen asking you how many cups (eight or six), what kind of beans (packaged or fresh), and roast level (dark, medium, or light). It would actually be nice if these three screens were combined into one, because it’s a lot of hoops to jump through if you’re just choosing the defaults. The app will then take you to a fourth screen with a big check mark and two options: start brew or delay brew.

If you thought that was a lot of steps to get through, just wait, because that’s what you’ll be doing. Waiting. The whole process, from heating the water to pre-soaking to extraction, takes about 10 minutes. As the machine goes through the steps, you can follow along on the app (it will say “heating,” “pre-soak,” and “extracting” but won’t tell you how much time is left in each step or overall). You can also watch the LED ring on the machine, which changes from yellowish orange, to dark blue, to light blue, and finally green when it’s ready. Even if you have the app closed, you’ll get a notification (if you opted in for them) when it’s all over. There’s nothing quite like standing at the bus stop and getting an alert that your early-riser co-worker has already brewed the first batch of coffee of the day.

Setting up the Behmor is a fairly quick process, but be warned: You need to connect it to the Internet before it will make your first cup. It has to calibrate, so your first step is downloading the Behmor app, which just recently became available for Android, in addition to iOS. First, it’s going to ask if you can access your location. You must do this, because it will factor your elevation into its calibration, as water boils at a different temperature in the mountains. Create your account, then tap the little plus sign on the home screen. The app then takes you through the process of finding the Behmor Brewer and connecting it to your Wi-Fi network.