Stanford's EyePassword helps fight "shoulder-surfing" at the ATM

Gaze-based password entry might sound like a chore -- and we can't say we find the fact of aligning our eyes with an on-screen ATM keyboard all that practical -- but if it means we can finally avoid that awkward moment at the cash machine where we block the keypad view from that shifty-looking sixth grader standing next to us, it just might be worth it. Stanford University has folks working on just such a solution to the dreaded "shoulder-surfing" at ATMs, and has come up with EyePassword. They're testing some systems that track your eyeballs in a variety of ways to perform PIN input, and while the resulting study shows that input times are slowed a little, the system does indeed make "eavesdropping by a malicious observer largely impractical." Of course, there's no telling when something like this will hit your neighborhood deli.

[Via New Scientist]

[nate @ Aug 21st 2007 10:24AM]

forget atms, this would be great for this disabled

[Paul @ Aug 21st 2007 1:49PM]

Yeah, especially for the blind...oh wait...

[DaLa @ Aug 21st 2007 10:59AM]

I'm not cross-eyed nor making a joke, but how or do these eye tracking scanners work for cross-eyed people?

[Andir3.0 @ Aug 21st 2007 11:51AM]

Or lazy eyes...

[Tony @ Aug 21st 2007 9:58PM]

Or 4th nerve palsy

[NHAnimator @ Aug 21st 2007 11:01AM]

I can hear the digital voice saying "You looked at the number 4. If this is correct, look at the number 1."

[Spyvie @ Aug 21st 2007 11:14AM]

I used to work in IT in a state capitol building, after hour’s access required pin entry into a scrambled number pad. It was pretty cool, a grid of physical keys with nixi tube numbers inside would beep and scramble every time it woke up... like a slot machine or some game show screen.

[Equis @ Aug 21st 2007 11:28AM]

Wouldn't it be just as easy for thieves to plant a hidden camera to track people's eye movement?

[PDubNYC @ Aug 21st 2007 11:41AM]

Oh ya, that sure would be easy. Or they could possibly stuff a midget into the deposit envelope slot to watch your eyes.

At least this system would prevent you from taking money out when you are too drunk to know better.

[Dilbert @ Aug 21st 2007 5:37PM]

"At least this system would prevent you from taking money out when you are too drunk to know better."

That would have been a life saver when I was younger :P

[HineyWipe @ Aug 21st 2007 11:41AM]

I recall the earlier ATMs had the orange-phosphor screen with periscope to allow only YOU to see what you entered and transaction. Way to go cheapskate-banks and germ-inducing touchscreens.

[Zach @ Aug 21st 2007 12:56PM]

as opposed to pink-eye and eye-boogers?

[SHOTT3R @ Aug 21st 2007 12:18PM]

How to combat shoulder surfing*.

1. Turn around
2. Glare
3. Say "I didn't know we had a joint account. Could you back up off me?"
4. Glare
5. Resume business


*only steps 1 and 2 may be needed if you are a large black man such as myself :)

[Zach @ Aug 21st 2007 12:57PM]

yea, but you didn't have any funds in your account to begin with


// horrid black stereotype :( I'm sorry

[SHOTT3R @ Aug 21st 2007 1:00PM]

Haha, c'mon. Obviously I'm withdrawing funds with a card I stole. Who said it had to be my account?

[Samo @ Aug 21st 2007 2:37PM]

Totally LOL'd at that convo.

[mitch.redmond @ Aug 21st 2007 2:45PM]

Best comment ever.

[Le Master @ Aug 21st 2007 4:52PM]

Zach, I've never laughed so hard at a comment in my life. Good stuff you two.

[Derrick @ Aug 21st 2007 1:07PM]

How does this thing handle repeated characters in a password? What if I need to hit the same key twice in a row?

[Solomon @ Aug 21st 2007 1:29PM]

double-blink?

[lk @ Aug 21st 2007 1:11PM]

why not just do a biometric retina scan. The one that anaylzes the unique physical structure of your eye. That would be much easier.

[Samo @ Aug 21st 2007 2:40PM]

It would be more expensive, have to include your bio deets on card and on system, causing the goverment to know yet another nit-bit of info about you?

On the otherhand, your goverment isn't as bad as mine yet, in terms of 'big brother' style watching your every move and knowing everything about everyone. Heck here in the UK we are getting biometric ID cards and passports to 'combat illegal immigrants, terrorists... [insert catchword of the day here]'

[lk @ Aug 21st 2007 1:14PM]

stare away from the keyboard, then stare at the key again, (I am guessing)

[SHOTT3R @ Aug 21st 2007 2:39PM]

a la Tay Zonday in "Chocolate Rain"?

[TehRoM4nTic @ Aug 21st 2007 1:25PM]

/sung
I see the secrets that you keep, when you're staring at the keys.

[djxspike @ Aug 21st 2007 1:58PM]

Shoulder surfing? What ever happened to looking over your shoulder and calmly saying "hey - back the f@#$ up!"??

[XSportSeeker @ Aug 21st 2007 4:31PM]

This is great and all... but isn't this far more complicated than having using biometrics?
Fingerprint scanning and retina.. or even those finger veins scanner or something.
I mean, unless this is extremely precise (and users are extremely trainned), I can only imagine how many wrong passwords the system would generate.