Smart Phones Could Know Their Users By How They Walk 96
mirgens writes "Technology Review has a short article on new work on gait analysis with the accelerometers built into many smart phones. The work was done at the Norwegian Information Security Laboratory ('Nislab'). The need for more security on mobile devices is increasing with new functionalities and features made available. To improve device security, Nislab proposed gait recognition as a protection mechanism — in other words, if somebody else walks away with your phone, it locks up. While previous work on gait recognition used video sources, for instance to identify people in airports or secure buildings, the Nislab researchers collected the gait data using a Google G1 phone containing the AK8976A embedded accelerometer." What if you're running from a mugger and want to dial 911?
What if you're running from a mugger and want to d (Score:5, Informative)
What if you're running from a mugger and want to dial 911?
Then don't lock out emergency functions - similar to the way that (in the US at least) phones without a valid subscription can still call 911.
SMART ph..:What if you're running from a mugger .. (Score:2)
The phone would call for you. That is why it is called a SMART phone.
OnSmart App (Score:1, Interesting)
Speaking of 911 and accelerometers...
I've long wondered if you could write a smart phone app that monitors the accelerometer for a roll over collision and calls 911 like OnStar. You could have it enabled only when the phone is in a car dock or something. Perhaps for sudden jolts like a rear-end collision it could say "I'm going to call 911 in one minute unless you tell me you're alright."
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You mean, like OnStar?
Like this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8As1zshWxn0 [youtube.com] :D
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You mean, like OnStar?
Yeah, that's why I fucking said, "like OnStar" in the first place.
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Chill the fuck out. I read your entire comment.
My point was, why should your phone do something that your car should do (or already does do)?
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My point was, why should your phone do something that your car should do (or already does do)?
You do know that OnStar is only available as OEM equipment on GM (Government Motors) vehicles, right? Oh and Saab, like anyone buys those.
Dupe.. (Score:2)
This story is old/a dupe. This was announced quite a while back. I can't find a lot of the old info thanks to this recent story but here's one from last year and I'm sure there are some from a couple years ago..
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1655066&dl=GUIDE&coll=GUIDE&CFID=108009773&CFTOKEN=58257172 [acm.org]
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If you're trying to dial the cops while running from a mugger I predict an encounter with a sturdy lamppost, street sign or news stand in your very near future.
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Every single one of them thinks the same thing. Newsflash: you're one of them.
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Every single one of them thinks the same thing. Newsflash: you're one of them.
That's a (+eleventy, insightful) right there.
Re:What if you're running from a mugger and want t (Score:5, Interesting)
>> What if you're running from a mugger and want to dial 911?
> Then don't lock out emergency functions - similar to the way that
> (in the US at least) phones without a valid subscription can still call 911.
The editing on /. gets worse each day. What is more interesting of a question would have been "are walks as unique as fingerprints, and can this be used to violate privacy" How is this quantified, and could the police put you on a suspect list because your "walk" is similar to who they think committed some crime? Those are interesting questions. As for 911, as the parent points out, that would be obvious to anyone with any life experience.
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If passwords are as unique as walks, this could be used to violate privacy!!
even a unactivated iphone call dial 911 with no si (Score:2)
even a unactivated iphone call dial 911 with no sim card
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If you want to talk the talk, you have to walk the walk.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_telephone_number#Europe [wikipedia.org]
What about other motions? (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm worried that this sort of thing would lead to phones that won't allow me to answer when they detect that I might be driving.
Re:What about other motions? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm more worried about the fact that my gait changes based on whether I'm wearing shoes with a lift or not, and how high that lift is. Admittedly not as much of a problem for the male folk in the room, but in my closet there's flats, as well as shoes with heels varying from 1-4", and I very rarely wear the same height of shoe two days in a row.
I don't like the idea of my phone locking me out if it thinks I'm driving. In theory that would be temporary, until you stop moving. But I *really* don't like the idea of my phone locking me out because I'm wearing a different pair of shoes than I did yesterday.
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These are two different things: one is a feature that (presumably) you, as the owner, could enable or disable, as you feel is most appropriate. The second is a limitation that the government legislators might impose on your use of your phone, whether you like it or not.
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[...]Admittedly not as much of a problem for the male folk in the room[...]
You must be new here.
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This would be done by GPS more effectively. If you are on a road, and moving faster then say a brisk bike ride, then it locks the phone.
If you are a passenger, you are just outta luck.
The greens would kill it (Score:3, Insightful)
If you are a passenger, you are just outta luck.
In that case, such legislation would never get out of committee because it would impose an undue burden on people who carpool or ride public transport. All seats in a car or especially a bus (except one) are reasonably safe for making phone calls.
good call (Score:1)
these guys would love it! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-08/lahood-weighs-urging-u-s-ban-on-all-driver-phone-use-in-cars.html [bloomberg.com]
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Cure for drunk dialing (Score:4, Funny)
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Heh... that way Google could help prevent TWI (Texting While Intoxicated)
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SMS to ex: "I'm going to drink heavily today, so please don't pick up the phone"
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This means you have to have a way to override the protection system, which means an equal or better protection system to do that, so why not just use that anyway...
Maybe the "better" (more/equally secure) system is less convenient.
To postulate an over-extreme example, have the phone locked to your gait, and if your gait changes because you've lost a leg you have to take it... somewhere, the phone store I guess (note this is a hypothetical, not a suggestion) with proof of ID to have it reset. Although then the weak link would be the reset method.
Point stands though, even if I can't come up with a decent example; some methods of identifying yourself are more secure, b
Lost a leg (Score:2)
if your gait changes because you've lost a leg you have to take it... somewhere
But would crutch gaits even be recognized by the system, or would they be rejected for being too far out of bounds? What about a gait like this [youtube.com]?
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Better security can wait until you are with customer support or at least at home looking up your master password.
Biometrics are good for a strong yet convenient security measure.
users will see a bug, not a feature (Score:3, Insightful)
There's no way this feature is going to be 100% accurate, and certainly not in 1.0. Every "recognition" technology ever has an error rate, and this will be no different. If it's intended as a security feature, the developers will have to calibrate it to err on the side of denying access, otherwise they'll open themselves up to criticism (and probably legal suits) over its failure to provide the advertised security. This means that there will be false positives, in which the phone denies its legitimate ow
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Read past my first sentence for an explanation of why it won't be accepted.
Furthermore, a password or PIN is 100% accurate: type it carefully and it will be accepted. Telling a user to "walk like yourself more carefully" or "type like yourself more carefully" for access to his phone is nonsense, because it isn't something he does consciously.
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Fail badly in practice? (Score:4, Insightful)
Those ladies actually have a high chance of getting their phones stolen - the thieves steal the bag with the phone inside etc. Many ladies typically don't wear any garments that have pockets. Or worse there are pockets but they are sewn shut so that you don't use them by mistake and make an ugly looking bulge
As for guys, it might work, but I doubt a significant number of us would intentionally buy a phone with this. If us guys wanted an antitheft phone we'd just buy a really cheap phone. Or "customize" it to the point where its fence value drops immensely.
A way to reduce phone theft is by phone makers making their phone IMEIs very hard to change (and ensuring that they are unique), and the cellular providers blocking stolen phones (even globally).
Ministry of Silly Walks (Score:3, Funny)
The New iPhone: John Cleese Edition!
Always wanted a phone that ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Great!!! I've always wanted a phone that won't work if I am jogging, riding a horse, skiing, walking on ice, sprain my ankle, having a gout attack, riding a bicycle, fleeing for my life, .... When can I expect to be able to buy this wonder?
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This is only basic research. I am sorry to inform you that you will have to wait some time until you could get such a phone, but I'm sure you could find an app for that.
P.S. I know he was joking, don't Whoosh me.
Don't drive drunk (Score:1, Troll)
I've always wanted a phone that won't work if I am [...] riding a bicycle
Bad example. Riding a bike while talking on the phone is like riding a bike with 0.08% ethyl alcohol in your blood.
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I've always wanted a phone that won't work if I am [...] riding a bicycle
Bad example. Riding a bike while talking on the phone is like riding a bike with 0.08% ethyl alcohol in your blood.
You mean it will damage my liver?
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there are many situations in which your gait can change
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Great!!! I've always wanted a phone that won't work if I am jogging, riding a horse, skiing, walking on ice, sprain my ankle, having a gout attack, riding a bicycle, fleeing for my life, .... When can I expect to be able to buy this wonder?
You're a slashdotter, when are you going to do any of that?
The technology seems in its baby stage at the time (Score:2, Informative)
From TFA: "they were only able to achieve a 20 percent Equal Error Rate (EER), which means that one time out of five, the phone registered either a false positive or a false negative when trying to determine the identity of the user. And that's with the phone in a hip holster, oriented in the same way every time."
Also, I recently injured my leg - would I be unable to use my phone with my new limp?
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It could save us from a matrix sequel. (Score:2)
Wait that kinda happened anyway so it wouldn't save us from 2 horrible sequels.
Multiple Sclerosis (Score:2)
So next time I break my toe... (Score:1)
Might actually work (Score:1, Insightful)
Interesting. It might be difficult to get the software flexible enough to deal with all possible paces for the same person, but consider this: each person's legs are a specific length. The way a person walks is intimately tied to the length of their legs, as well as the shape of their hips and their overall weight. It is not unreasonable to suspect that sufficiently-accurate accelerometers could distinguish between peoples' movement no matter how fast they were moving (walking, running, whatever).
The mai
A wide variety of unusual gaits (Score:2)
The way a person walks is intimately tied to the length of their legs
This is true in most but not all cases. Gaits like a bear walk [youtube.com] or a crutch walk [youtube.com] or a tripedal fist walk [youtube.com] might not be close enough to the typical human bipedal gait to get recognized. So in order for the phone to qualify under some countries' accessibility laws, it will have to consider a wide variety of unusual gaits. (Yes, there is a ministry of silly walks, and it's part of physiatry.)
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However my overall weight can change quite significantly over a very short time. It's called backpack.
Must resist... (Score:1)
if somebody else walks away with your phone? (Score:2)
Or you stub your toe, or are sore from a run, bought a new pair of shoes....
What a blast from the past (Score:1)
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Hmm, you're right that 2000 is probably too early, but 2007 is way too late. The research was done by a research group that published the results, and if I'm not completely wrong they came up with a false negative rate of 85-90%.
I don't quite remember when the first accelerometer phones were out, but I think this was done with either one of the first ones with it, or a prototype phone. I only remember this because I was interested in this technology, but didn't expect to get one for a long time.
Gait vs password? (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't completely disable the phone. If the gait analysis comes up "wrong" then require the user to enter his password again.
People walk? (Score:1)
Who wants it? (Score:1)
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I'd give it a try. It doesn't have to "lock up" permanently, maybe it could just lock and ask for a password if it notices something might not be right? Many people keep their phone locked 24/7 anyway and always require a 4 digit pin so this wouldn't be inconvenient to them at all. I don't keep my phone locked but I do worry about theft, sounds like this system would be the best of both worlds, even if it's wrong 20% of the time I wouldn't mind having to enter a p
assassinations by phone (Score:1)
so now we could use a phone to assassinate somebody with out them having to actually answer the call. though, if it's an explosive in the unit itself, a better way to ensure a kill is if the phone is up against their head. but if it a GPS bomb fired from a drone/plain i'm sure close is good enough.
Bad Knees (Score:1)
I guess on those days, I don't need to be calling anyone, anyway.
How long would this take to establish your gait? Front pants pocket? left or right? Back pocket? Cargo pocket? Coat pocket? Surely holding it up in your hand wouldn't work, as an arm is going to counteract the bouncing of a step and hold it steady. Maybe held lightly swinging in the hand.
And what if I was carrying a backpack? Or briefcase? Or....reall
cool! (Score:1)
Already tried w/Keystroke Pattern Recognition (Score:2)
There has been research and even products made to do the same thing in recognizing the distinct patterns or each users' typing. I recall first hearing of this in the early 90s, and it probably goes back further than this. Here's two examples:
http://cs.unc.edu/~fabian/papers/fgcs.pdf [unc.edu]
http://www.securitysoftwarezone.com/keystroke-recognition-review273-7.html [securitysoftwarezone.com]
These passive biometrics are all great(TM) solutions -- they take advantage of highly idiosyncratic, repetitive, and difficult to forge characteristics o
So only one person EVER uses the phone? (Score:1)
A phone with this enabled would be near impossible to lend to her. I'm not saying it's a bad idea but it'd need to be something that can easily be disabled.
how about ring tones based on your movement? (Score:2)
How about a different ring tone depending on how your walking/strutting? If you like barely moving, or standing still, it goes quiet for stalking mode. Big ass strut will play whatever the popular tone is for picking up the ladies.
lets see, the "on the bed stand and it's shaking" mode so it will go silent and not interupt your session with a crack ho.
I want a phone, dammit (Score:1)
This is just going to make cellphones more and more expensive to add in more bells and whistles which some people never use.
Is it not possible to funnel money used for development of things like this into the cellular system? I would like subsidized calling. How about a free cellphone service?
Something like that is actually making progress. Think about it l
Never disable 911 (Score:2)
You don't want to disable 911 or its international equivalents period. If the guy who mugged me is calling 911 on my stolen phone, chances are someone someone's life is at risk. I certainly wouldn't want to find out that some child hit by a car died because I'd installed some stupid app and the mugger saw it and was *trying* to do the right thing and call 911..
geolocation (Score:1)