Microsoft patents pressure-sensitive controller that identifies who's holding it

Iris scans are old hat. The future of biometric identification is in registering and identifying a person's unique hand pressure profile – at least, that's what someone at Microsoft believes. The megalithic multimedia mogul has been granted a patent for "personalization using a hand-pressure signature," specifically in conjunction with game console controllers.

A device outfitted with this technology would include internal memory and a processing unit. Once gripped by a user, the device would register the pressure exerted by the user's mits and compare that to a stored database of recognized pressure profiles. Once a match is found, the device (in this case a 360) knows who is holding the controller and can then display advertisements information appropriately. Despite this patent being specific to controllers, we could see the usefulness of this technology in cell phones, tv remotes, or essentially any hand-held electronic device, should it ever come to fruition.