Augmented Unlocking Techniques for Smartphones Using Pre-Touch Information

TL;DR

This paper introduces 3D Pattern, a novel smartphone authentication method using pre-touch sensing to enhance resistance against shoulder surfing and smudge attacks, demonstrated through a pilot study.

Contribution

The paper presents a new pre-touch based authentication technique called 3D Pattern, improving security against common attacks compared to traditional PIN and pattern locks.

Findings

Immune to smudge attacks

More resistant to shoulder surfing

Takes about 8 seconds to authenticate

Abstract

Smartphones store a significant amount of personal and private information, and are playing an increasingly important role in people's lives. It is important for authentication techniques to be more resistant against two known attacks called shoulder surfing and smudge attacks. In this work, we propose a new technique called 3D Pattern. Our 3D Pattern technique takes advantage of a new input paradigm called pre-touch, which could soon allow smartphones to sense a user's finger position at some distance from the screen. We implement the technique and evaluate it in a pilot study (n=6) by comparing it to PIN and pattern locks. Our results show that although our prototype takes about 8 seconds to authenticate, it is immune to smudge attacks and promises to be more resistant to shoulder surfing.