Functional biometrics
Body reaction as a password
Forgot your password? The Paluno Software Technology Institute at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) is researching a new approach that combines biometrics and password protection.
Today, it is common practice to authenticate oneself using a fingerprint or iris scan. However, biometric methods also have disadvantages because the physical characteristics cannot be changed and are carried around openly. The paluno Software Technology Institute at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) is now researching a new approach that combines biometrics and password protection.
In this project, researchers from the Human-Computer Interaction working group are focusing on a new class of biometric authentication methods: functional biometrics. Here, the system that a person wants to log into generates an input signal and transmits it to the body. This signal can be an auditory, electrical or haptic stimulus that triggers a user-specific reaction. For example, when sound is fed into the skull via data glasses, the bones of the skull change it in a characteristic way. The altered sound signal can be measured and compared with a previously stored reaction.
In this way, a biometric password is generated with the user's body. Professor Dr. Stefan Schneegaß says about the advantage of this technology: "Like a fingerprint, the body's reaction varies from person to person. However, it does not leave traces everywhere that are accessible to everyone."
The aim of his project is to investigate the design scope of functional biometric approaches and also to test which sensors and actuators are suitable in principle for authentication on computers or smartphones. The scientists also want to develop models and algorithms for research demonstrators that can be used to automatically authenticate test subjects.
The project is being funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) with 357,800 euros over three years.
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