Many driver’s licenses and passports have holograms and other types of sophisticated security embedded in them, but for the most part, people still heavily rely on ID cards to prove who they are. Biometric identification technologies, such as fingerprinting and iris scanning, are already being used to speed up security clearance at several airports in the United States. Iris scanning is also gaining support in the health care industry, as a way to prevent fraud and combat identity theft. Now, ID tech is moving into new realms, with devices that could distinguish individuals by their veins, brain waves and even body odor. Here are five emerging alternatives to traditional identification:

Body odor

As dogs already know, each person has a unique and recognizable odor. The challenge has been to come up with sensors that work as well as a dog’s nose. Starting in 2009, the Technical University of Madrid began collaborating with Ilía Sistemas, a Spanish tech consulting firm, to develop technology to identify individuals based on their chemical smell patterns.