It is common for us to fiddle with passwords when we need to login or unlock our smartphones. The day is not far when simple free-form gestures will be enough to do that for you!
Researchers at Rutgers University have performed a one-of-a-kind study of doodle passwords for smartphones. According to the study coauthor, James Lindqvist, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the School of Engineering, people will be able to draw a password of any shape with any number of fingers in a free-form gesture.
The results of the Rutgers study and findings from previous studies suggest that passwords made of free-form gestures can be a great alternative to text passwords, Lindqvist said. Since free-form gestures are touch-screen friendly, quick to use and harder to guess, they are highly suitable for mobile devices these days.
"Preventing people from hacking into your smartphone is a major issue, and it becomes even more important because people carry their smartphones everywhere," Lindqvist said. "Getting access to somebody's phone can give a lot of information about that person and make them vulnerable to lots of different kinds of attacks than can have financial and other repercussions."
Lindqvist also said that studies by previous researchers indicate that PINs and passwords were difficult to use, easy to guess and not very mobile device-friendly. Other limitations include "shoulder surfing," limited password character space and time-consuming password entry. As more and more people rely on smartphones, it is becoming necessary to protect these devices and keep the mobile data secure.
"If you get access to a typical smartphone, that can reveal their whole social network," said Lindqvist, coauthor of a recent study on Bitcoin, a controversial virtual currency. "People take photos with them. They might be just completely innocent photos of their family, but they might still not want them in the public. People do online banking with them."
Free-form gestures are not just limited to smartphones but can also be scaled for use on laptops and tablets that use touchscreens. They can also be used on doors with touchscreens instead of using key locks or swipe cards, according to Lindqvist.
