Improving Password Security With Eye Tracking
The moment an online password is entered is the least secure point and typically the moment where private information is stolen due to visual snooping.
To combat this problem, researchers at Stanford University implemented a system for password entry via eye tracking. By creating an on-screen keyboard interface with a red focus point for each key, users can use their gaze to input passwords, open windows, and safely navigate the more insecure moments of online use. Users calibrate their gaze at the beginning of each experiment, focusing on the red dot of each key to improve input accuracy.
Researchers then wrote their own saccade detection and fixation-smoothing algorithm, improving the detection of gaze fixation. No visual cues were used to obfuscate the passwords from being snooped. Instead, an audio alert notified the user that a letter had been successfully entered.
The study found password entry via eye tracking to take slightly longer and had similar error rates as keyboard entry method. But at the conclusion of the experiment, users overwhelmingly preferred using gaze tracking for password entry at public venues. Read here
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