You might be interested in this interview which came out just yesterday [1] about techniques for detecting people by the way they walk (apparently, throughpressure point patterns in a digital footprint) with (IIRC) 99.6% precision.
Regional identification through manners and/or phonology goes back to the concept of a shibboleth [2]. This is used rather wonderfully as a turning point in many stories (without spoiling too much, I should mention that Tarantino pulled this off nicely in one of his films).
Indeed! On the disturbing side, eventually computers will be capable of this sort of thing. If you thought face recognition was scary, imagine if computers could identify you by your walking habits. Imagine how that plays out once you factor in the growing omnipresence of cameras and the longevity of digital data.
P.S. Imagine how hard it would be to break into someplace that had full networked HD video surveillance and was able to track the identity and location of everyone in the building by monitoring their characteristic kinematics.
Regional identification through manners and/or phonology goes back to the concept of a shibboleth [2]. This is used rather wonderfully as a turning point in many stories (without spoiling too much, I should mention that Tarantino pulled this off nicely in one of his films).
[1] http://www.cbc.ca/spark/2011/10/todd-pataky/
[2] http://duckduckgo.com/shibboleth