A gesture-based authentication scheme for untrusted public terminals

Powerful mobile devices with minimal I/O capabilities increase the likelihood that we will want to annex these devices to I/O resources we encounter in the local environment. This opportunistic annexing will require authentication. We present a sensor-based authentication mechanism for mobile devices that relies on physical possession instead of knowledge to setup the initial connection to a public terminal. Our solution provides a simple mechanism for shaking a device to authenticate with the public infrastructure, making few assumptions about the surrounding infrastructure while also maintaining a reasonable level of security. Figure 1: Prototype of a Motorola i95cl instrumented with a 2-axis accelerometer. Categories and Subject Descriptors: K.6.5 [Security and Protection]: Authentication; H.5.2 [User Interfaces]: Input Devices and strategies (GUI)

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: UIST
• Authors: Shwetak N. Patel, Jeffrey S. Pierce, Gregory D. Abowd
• Keywords: Mobile Devices, Powerful Mobile Devices, Sensor-based Authentication Mechanism, UIST 2004