Gesture Password Authentication for Mobile Security
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional screen locking mechanisms for mobile platforms, such as PIN-based and pattern-based systems, suffer from security weaknesses due to low entropy keys and user memory burdens, making them inconvenient and less secure.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a gesture password system where smart devices verify user recall through a multi-phase enrollment process, including training and proving phases, using graphical passwords like color-shape pairings or touch screen gestures, to generate high-entropy cryptographic keys.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If PIN length is increased to strengthen security, then key entropy is improved, but user memory burden increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the parameter of password representation from numerical digits to visual symbols (emojis, icons, images). This transformation maintains or increases entropy while dramatically improving memorability through visual recognition and emotional association, directly resolving the contradiction between security and ease of operation
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses visual copies (images, emojis, icons) to represent password information instead of abstract numerical sequences. These visual representations are easier for human brains to remember and recall, allowing users to maintain strong passwords without burdening their memory
2Reliability
If pattern complexity is increased to provide higher entropy, then security is improved, but user recall difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the parameter of password form from abstract pattern traces to concrete visual symbol sequences. Users interact with recognizable images and emojis rather than tracing invisible patterns, making recall significantly easier while maintaining high entropy through the large space of possible symbol combinations
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical action of tracing patterns on screen with a visual selection and sequencing system. Instead of relying on motor memory for pattern tracing, users select and arrange visual symbols, substituting a mechanical interaction with a more cognitively natural visual task
3Ease of operation
If conventional PIN-based authentication is used, then ease of operation is maintained, but key entropy remains low
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the fundamental parameter of password representation from numerical to visual symbols. This allows the system to maintain the simplicity of direct user input (ease of operation) while dramatically increasing the entropy available for key derivation through the vast combinatorial space of visual symbols, their arrangements, and associated metadata
Data Source
AI summary
A technique provides user authentication using a smart device (e.g., a smart phone, a tablet, etc.). The technique involves displaying, by processing circuitry of a smart device, a password prompt on a touch screen of the smart device. The password prompt includes a motion video of touch screen gestures to prompt a user of the smart device to enter a gesture password. The technique further involves receiving, by the processing circuitry, a trial gesture password entered by the user via the touch screen. The trial gesture password includes a user-entered sequence of touch screen gestures. The technique further involves performing, by the processing circuitry, multiple gesture password confirmation operations to verify that the user is able to re-enter the trial gesture password via the touch screen over time to authenticate the user to the smart device.