Tactile Passwords

Back in late January I blogged about a new way to authenticate users by using a graphical interface. In the blog article, "Graphical Passwords - What A Concept!," I explained how icons are used instead of text or token devices.

Today I learned about another way of authenticating users by using tactile passwords, which basically means via the sense of touch, similar to braille.

Over at New Scientist magazine there is an article that discusses how some folks at Queen's University in the UK use a mouse designed for visually impaired people. The mouse has two tiny arrays of 16 pins each that replace the left and right mouse buttons. In order to authenticate for access purposes the mouse pointer is moved around on the screen and the pin patterns change depending on the mouse pointer location. The correct authentication pattern is discovered when the right pin patterns are sensed by the fingers, at which point the user clicks to authenticate. Pretty slick, eh?

Read the article, "Tactile passwords could stop ATM 'shoulder-surfing'," for more information and a link to a video that shows how it works.