As of January 2014, 58% of Americans over the age of 18 own a smart phone. Of these smart phones, Android devices provide some security by requiring that third-party application developers declare to users which components and features their applications will access. However, many of the real-time environmental sensors on devices are exempt from this requirement. We evaluate the possibility of exploiting this freedom to discretely use these sensors and expand on previous work by developing an application that can use the gyroscope and accelerometer to interpret what the user has written, even of trace input is used. Trace input is an option available on Samsung's default keyboard as well as in many popular third-party keyboard applications, such as Swype, SwiftKey, TouchPal, and GO Keyboard. \"Tracing\" an input involves the user dragging from the first letter of the intended word to the last letter without lifting his or her finger. The inclusion of trace input in a key logger application increases the amount of personal information that can be captured since users may choose to use the time saving trace-based input as opposed to the traditional tapping-based input. In this work, we attempt to interpret user input using accelerometer and gyroscope data given single letter tap and full word trace inputs.
","abstract_html":"<p>As of January 2014, 58% of Americans over the age of 18 own a smart phone. Of these smart phones, Android devices provide some security by requiring that third-party application developers declare to users which components and features their applications will access. However, many of the real-time environmental sensors on devices are exempt from this requirement. We evaluate the possibility of exploiting this freedom to discretely use these sensors and expand on previous work by developing an application that can use the gyroscope and accelerometer to interpret what the user has written, even of trace input is used. Trace input is an option available on Samsung's default keyboard as well as in many popular third-party keyboard applications, such as Swype, SwiftKey, TouchPal, and GO Keyboard. "Tracing" an input involves the user dragging from the first letter of the intended word to the last letter without lifting his or her finger. The inclusion of trace input in a key logger application increases the amount of personal information that can be captured since users may choose to use the time saving trace-based input as opposed to the traditional tapping-based input. In this work, we attempt to interpret user input using accelerometer and gyroscope data given single letter tap and full word trace inputs.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Nguyen, Trang Duyen"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Computer Science - Applied Computing Track","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"TSYS School of Computer Science","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Dr. Radhouane Chouchane","Dr. Yesem Peker","Dr. Charles Turnitsa"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2015,"date_issued":"2015-05-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2015-05-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:44:55Z","subjects":["Mobile Malware","Key Logger","Mobile Security","Spyware","Motion Sensors","Android","Computer Engineering","Computer Sciences"],"languages":["English"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://csuepress.columbusstate.edu/theses_dissertations/178","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Dr. Radhouane Chouchane","Dr. Yesem Peker","Dr. Charles Turnitsa"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Nguyen, Trang Duyen"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2015-12-11T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["TSYS School of Computer Science"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Computer Science - Applied Computing Track"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Mobile Malware","Key Logger","Mobile Security","Spyware","Motion Sensors","Android","Computer Engineering","Computer Sciences"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["English"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://csuepress.columbusstate.edu/theses_dissertations/178"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["As of January 2014, 58% of Americans over the age of 18 own a smart phone. Of these smart phones, Android devices provide some security by requiring that third-party application developers declare to users which components and features their applications will access. However, many of the real-time environmental sensors on devices are exempt from this requirement. We evaluate the possibility of exploiting this freedom to discretely use these sensors and expand on previous work by developing an application that can use the gyroscope and accelerometer to interpret what the user has written, even of trace input is used. Trace input is an option available on Samsung's default keyboard as well as in many popular third-party keyboard applications, such as Swype, SwiftKey, TouchPal, and GO Keyboard. \"Tracing\" an input involves the user dragging from the first letter of the intended word to the last letter without lifting his or her finger. The inclusion of trace input in a key logger application increases the amount of personal information that can be captured since users may choose to use the time saving trace-based input as opposed to the traditional tapping-based input. In this work, we attempt to interpret user input using accelerometer and gyroscope data given single letter tap and full word trace inputs.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Using Unrestricted Mobile Sensors to Infer Tapped and Traced User Inputs"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Dr. Radhouane Chouchane","Dr. Yesem Peker","Dr. Charles Turnitsa"],"dc:creator":["Nguyen, Trang Duyen"],"dc:date.available":["2015-12-11T08:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["As of January 2014, 58% of Americans over the age of 18 own a smart phone. Of these smart phones, Android devices provide some security by requiring that third-party application developers declare to users which components and features their applications will access. However, many of the real-time environmental sensors on devices are exempt from this requirement. We evaluate the possibility of exploiting this freedom to discretely use these sensors and expand on previous work by developing an application that can use the gyroscope and accelerometer to interpret what the user has written, even of trace input is used. Trace input is an option available on Samsung's default keyboard as well as in many popular third-party keyboard applications, such as Swype, SwiftKey, TouchPal, and GO Keyboard. \"Tracing\" an input involves the user dragging from the first letter of the intended word to the last letter without lifting his or her finger. The inclusion of trace input in a key logger application increases the amount of personal information that can be captured since users may choose to use the time saving trace-based input as opposed to the traditional tapping-based input. In this work, we attempt to interpret user input using accelerometer and gyroscope data given single letter tap and full word trace inputs.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://csuepress.columbusstate.edu/theses_dissertations/178"],"dc:language":["English"],"dc:subject":["Mobile Malware","Key Logger","Mobile Security","Spyware","Motion Sensors","Android","Computer Engineering","Computer Sciences"],"dc:title":["Using Unrestricted Mobile Sensors to Infer Tapped and Traced User Inputs"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["TSYS School of Computer Science"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Computer Science - Applied Computing Track"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:44:55Z"}