Bend Passwords: Using Gestures to Authenticate on Flexible Devices

Upcoming mobile devices will have flexible displays, allowing us to explore new forms of user authentication. On flexible displays, users interact with the device by deforming the surface of the display through bending. In this thesis, we present a new type of user authentication that uses bend gestures as its input modality. We ran three user studies to evaluate the usability and security of our new authentication scheme and compared it to PINs on a mobile phone. Our first two studies evaluated the creation and memorability of bend passwords and PINs. The third study looked at the security problem of shoulder-surfing passwords on mobile devices. Our results show that bend passwords are a promising authentication mechanism for flexible display devices. We also provide eight design recommendations for implementing bend passwords on flexible display devices, based on our results.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Computer Science (M.C.S.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Human-Computer Interaction

Grantor dc:publisher

Carleton University

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Maqsood, Sana

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright © 2014 the author(s). Theses may be used for non-commercial research, educational, or related academic purposes only. Such uses include personal study, research, scholarship, and teaching. Theses may only be shared by linking to Carleton University Institutional Repository and no part may be used without proper attribution to the author. No part may be used for commercial purposes directly or indirectly via a for-profit platform; no adaptation or derivative works are permitted without consent from the copyright owner.

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

10.22215/etd/2014-10333

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:carleton.scholaris.ca:20.500.14718/32556