IFTT-PIN: Demonstrating the Self-Calibration Paradigm on a PIN-Entry Task

TL;DR

This paper introduces IFTT-PIN, a self-calibrating PIN-entry system that allows users to choose button-color mappings, enabling simultaneous PIN and mapping inference for improved usability.

Contribution

It presents a novel self-calibration paradigm for PIN entry that eliminates the need for pre-assigned button colors, enhancing flexibility and user control.

Findings

Successfully infers user PINs and button-color mappings simultaneously

Demonstrates improved usability over traditional fixed-color methods

Provides a platform for testing various self-calibration PIN schemes

Abstract

We demonstrate IFTT-PIN, a self-calibrating version of the PIN-entry method introduced in Roth et al. (2004) [1]. In [1], digits are split into two sets and assigned a color respectively. To communicate their digit, users press the button with the same color that is assigned to their digit, which can be identified by elimination after a few iterations. IFTT-PIN uses the same principle but does not pre-assign colors to each button. Instead, users are free to choose which button to use for each color. IFTT-PIN infers both the user's PIN and their preferred button-to-color mapping at the same time, a process called self-calibration. Different versions of IFTT-PIN can be tested at https://jgrizou.github.io/IFTT-PIN/ and a video introduction at https://youtu.be/5I1ibPJdLHM.