A woman fixes red heart-shaped balloons on a fence on Februray 14, 2012 in Berlin.

Think the love in your heart is unique? You might be right. It turns out that everyone's heart beats to its own rhythm. Scientists think they can take that uniqueness to protect your data. Isn't that lovely?

To prove the point, researchers led by Ching-Kun Chen, an electrical engineer at National Chung Hsing University in Taiwan, have developed an algorithm that turns an electrocardiograph (ECG) reading from your palm into an encryption key.

"He says the goal is to build the system into external hard drives and other devices that can be decrypted and encrypted simply by touching them," reports New Scientist magazine.

Findings were published online January 14 in Information Sciences. 

More on encryption technology:

• Apple would use voice, facial recognition as part of iPhone 'kill switch'
• Goal of the cloud: Keeping encrypted data safe
• FBI software cracks encryption wall
• Simple passwords no longer suffice

John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. To learn more about him, check out his website and follow him on Twitter. For more of our Future of Technology series, watch the featured video below.