Ever since Apple added a fingerprint recognition device to the home buttons of their iPhones, similar biometric identifiers continue to be implemented into technology as a safety protocol. Increasingly, passwords are being seen as a weakness in digital security. People don’t think about their passwords and assume no one will figure theirs out, while many commonly used passwords tend to be easily guessable. So recently, in an attempt to fix the not-so-secure security in many tech devices, a team of scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology and research labs in China have developed a prototype of a biometrically secure keyboard.
Essentially, the idea behind this keyboard is to secure your computer as a whole. The device in the keyboard learns to sense your keystrokes and how you type in real-time, so when it senses an intruder with unfamiliar key strokes, it can lock your computer. Not only can you stress less about your password, the keyboard also generates energy to power itself. And it keeps itself clean using a dirt repellent coating and composition of thin layers of plastic with conductive film, meaning you won’t have to worry about getting crumbs stuck in the keys anymore. The top layer of the keys allows them to register individual keystroke data and learn and track typing style.
There are many devices that have tried to accomplish this type of security in keyboards, but they ultimately have not succeeded. This is mostly because other devices tend to use an algorithmic approach, relying on the internal coding in them to identify who is typing based on analyses of keystrokes. The scientists at Georgia Tech are using a hardware-based approach of “typing-induced electric signals,” which, in addition to having the skills of algorithmic identifiers, is also able to sense pressure, speed, and strike timing. Other keyboard devices also need charging, while this new prototype is able to charge itself.
“Given such features as self-securing, self-powering, and self-cleaning, as well as unique applicability resulting from distinctive mechanism and one-piece non-mechanical-punching structure, the IKB presented in this work is a practical approach in converting typing motions for self-powered electronics as well as a milestone in the development toward a highly secure behavioral biometrics-based authentication system, which will have extensive applications in the fields of artificial intelligence, cyber security, and computer or network access control.”