StarTrek Authentication

If the crew of StarTrek Enterprise every had to log in to their bank accounts, this is how they probably did it . . . entering the PIN with their eyes.

Researchers at the Stanford University in California developed a new concept in authentication, called EyePassword:

“A system that uses infrared light to track the position of your eyes as you look at numbers and letters displayed on a screen could soon make that possible. “While it is simple to look over someone’s shoulder to tell what keys they are pressing, it’s harder to tell exactly where on the screen the user is looking,” says Manu Kumar, who helped create the system, called EyePassword, at Stanford University in California.

EyePassword works by shining an invisible infrared beam on the user’s face. That produces a reflection or “glint” in their eye that stays in the same spot no matter where they look, in contrast to their pupils, which move whenever their gaze shifts. A camera tracks the relative positions of the glint and the person’s pupils and uses this to work out what …”

Here is link to the article in the New Scientist Magazine (premium account required)