Scientist nose the future of biometrics
For more than 100 years the world's police forces have been using fingerprints to identify individuals, but now scientists are experimenting with noses.
Researchers say the nose has been neglected in the field of biometrics and would work well for ID in covert surveillance.
But security experts say it is unlikely that noses will outshine the iris of the eye as the future biometric of choice.
Australian passports use biometric information and some businesses use the technology for security access to buildings and computer logins.
Dr Adrian Evans headed up the research and told the BBC that noses have advantages in biometrics.
"Ears have been looked at in detail, eyes have been looked at in terms of iris recognition, but the nose has been neglected," he said.
"Noses are harder to conceal so a system that recognises noses would work better with an uncooperative subject or for covert surveillance."
The research is in its infancy, with only 40 noses involved in the tests.
Professor Brian Lovell, a research leader in security and surveillance at the University of Queensland, says many body parts could be used for biometrics but it is a question of what would be the most accurate.
"The big one of course in biometrics is face recognition, because that is how you and I recognise other people - it's by their faces," he said.
"One big advantage of face recognition is that humans can be used as a sanity check, if the computer gets it wrong, a human can say that's the same guy."
He says noses could be an alternative identification, but the 3D scanning used has its drawbacks.
"3D scanning is very expensive and you can only acquire a 3D model when you're very close to the system, so you have to sit still while the laser scanner scans your nose," he said.
"The sort of application where that could be used is in prisons, for example, but it's not going to be very useful in an airport situation where you want to have passengers moving through quite rapidly."
He says for now, the iris outshines the nose as a reliable biometric.
"It's very rarely damaged, it's optically clear and you don't tend to get injuries to the eye. The iris code is a random code that is generated as you grow; it's not genetically encoded, so identical twins have different irises," he said.
Security specialists say there is a growing tendency for technologies to use multiple forms of biometrics.
The researchers say nasal technology could be combined with other identification methods to increase its reliability.