Ear phone cued, picture based authentication system and method
An earphone-cued picture-based authentication system and method are disclosed. The system authenticates a user by requiring interaction with predefined regions of a displayed image, where the correct interaction is guided by private audio cues delivered through earphones. Audio cues provided to the ears indicate which subset of image regions the user must select at each step. This multimodal authentication mechanism significantly improves resistance to shoulder-surfing, and visual inference, while maintaining usability on touchscreen and desktop devices.
1 . An authentication method for securely permitting access to a server from an electronic device operated by a user using audible cues provided to headphones or an earphone worn by the user, comprising:
receiving at the server a request for authorization sent by the electronic device;
displaying an image from one or more images stored by the server on the electronic device, wherein the image displayed at the electronic device has been registered at the server as being associated with a specific user, and wherein the image has a plurality of secret locations on the image to be touched in a specific order, and a plurality of deceiving locations on the image to be touched in a specific order, wherein each of the deceiving locations corresponds to one audible cue or tone selected from a plurality of audible cues or tones;
receiving input at the server from the electronic device corresponding to locations touched on the image displayed and an order in which the locations are touched, wherein the locations touched include the secret locations in the specific order and one or two of the deceiving locations interspersed with the secret locations;
providing plurality of audible cues or tones to headphones or an earphone of the user operating the electronic device in the form of a plurality of different musical notes during the receiving step; and
granting the electronic device access to resources of the server only when
input is received corresponding to touches on the image for each of the secret locations in the specific order, and
input is received for each deceiving location of the plurality of deceiving locations based one or more of the musical notes of the plurality of different musical notes supplied to the headphones or earphone of the user to prompt the user to touch one or more of the deceiving locations, wherein the different musical notes correspond to different deceiving locations, wherein the input for each deceiving location is interspersed with the secret locations according to a time when the one or more musical notes is provided to the headphones or the earphone of the user.
2 . The authentication method of claim 1 wherein at least two different musical notes are supplied to the user at two different times during the receiving input step.
3 . The authentication method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of musical notes are supplied at different times for a different duration.
4 . The authentication method of claim 1 wherein the electronic device is selected from the group consisting of a cellphone, a tablet, and a portable computer.
5 . The authentication method of claim 1 wherein the one or more musical notes are delivered to the headphones of the user.
6 . A system comprising a processor, display, audio interface, and memory configured to perform the method of claim 1 .
7 . An authentication method comprising displaying an image, delivering an audio cue through an earphone, and authenticating a user based on interaction with a subset of predefined image points indicated by the audio cue according to claim 1 .