The US Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences supported research to produce a new keyboard that can sense who’s typing on it.

“By analyzing such parameters as the force applied by key presses and the time interval between them, a new self-powered non-mechanical intelligent keyboard could provide a stronger layer of security for computer users. The self-powered device generates electricity when a user’s fingertips contact the multi-layer plastic materials that make up the device,” Phys.org reports.

A traditional keyboard requires a certain amount of pressure to make a “mechanical contact” to type a letter, number or symbol.

“This intelligent keyboard changes the traditional way in which a keyboard is used for information input,” Zhong Lin Wang, a Regents professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, says.

“Every punch of the keys produces a complex electrical signal that can be recorded and analyzed.”

The intelligent keyboard can also record each key touched. Since each individual has a unique typing, the keyboard could provide a new biometric for securing computers or tracking what a user is typing.

“This has the potential to be a new means for identifying users,” Wang says, according to Futurity.org.

“With this system, a compromised password would not allow a cyber-criminal onto the computer. The way each person types even a few words is individual and unique.”

According to the Georgia Tech News Center, the work was “sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences” under award DE-FG02-07ER46394.