London, Dec 29 (IANS) Scientists have designed a car seat which can recognise the ‘bottom-print’ or the way people sit to identify the driver.

Scientists at the Tokyo’s Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology have designed the chair which measures 360 pressure points to build a 3D profile of how a person sits.

The discovery could replace car keys and the researchers say it could even be used in offices instead of computer passwords. Scientists say that the system is 98 percent accurate.

It’s a simple matter of fitting pressure sensors inside a normal car seat - so it could be in production cars as early as 2014, reports the Daily Mail.

The team says that the bottom-scan is actually less intrusive than other forms of biometric scans, such as the face recognition currently in use by Britain passport control.

Most biometric systems require users to stand still to be scanned - whereas sitting is a natural instinct.