Communications of the ACM
Could a Doodle Replace Your Password?
A new identity input method called "user-generated free-form gestures" could replace smartphone passwords with patterns drawn by the user on the device's touchscreen.
Credit: Janne Lindqvist
Researchers led by Rutgers University professor Janne Lindqvist have developed an identity input method called "user-generated free-form gestures," which could replace smartphone passwords with patterns drawn by the user on the device's touchscreen.
"As users draw a shape or pattern on the screen, we track their fingers, recording where they move and how quickly (or slowly)," Lindqvist says. "We compare that track to one recorded when they set up the gesture-based login. This protection can be added just by software changes; it needs no specific hardware or other modifications to existing touchscreen devices."
Lindqvist notes the system also permits multiple-finger input, and he says, "the key to improving security using one or more fingers is to make a design that is not easy to guess."
Tests of the gesture-credential system on websites found the logging-in process was faster than text and password-based logins.
From The Conversation
View Full Article
Abstracts Copyright © 2017 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
No entries found