OyaYansa Posted August 25, 2017 Posted August 25, 2017 When we unlock our mobile in a public place or write the password at an ATM, if there are people nearby we may feel uncomfortable, as they could see our keys, and in case they have malicious intentions could steal the terminal or the card and use them. To avoid these problems, a team of engineers from New York University has developed a system that protects tel code unlocking the mobile from prying eyes through an optical illusion. The application is called IllusionPIN and what it does is to display a hybrid image composed of two numeric keyboards, where the numbers are distributed differently. The visibility of each image depends on the distance to the user: the person closest to the screen will see one of the keyboards, while the observer is at a distance of one meter or more will see the image with the Numbers otherwise ordered. In addition, for added security, keyboards are reconfigured after each authentication attempt or login, so the same images are not displayed twice in a row. "PIN authentication is po[CENSORED]r for good reasons: it's easy to use and remember," explains Nasir Memon, the study's director. "Our goal was to increase the resiliency of PIN authentication without forcing the device or compromising the user experience." To test this password protection system, the team used 21 volunteers who tried to steal the PIN from other spying people while unlocking their smartphone. When IllusionPIN was not activated they were able to obtain the key at all times, but with the application running they failed to point the correct key in any of the 84 attempts. Researchers are now evaluating the marketing options of this technology, so if they reach agreements with any brand we will be able to find this technology in our mobile phones in the future.
Premium
Recommended Posts