Phone gait

Researchers at VTT, Technical Research Centre of Finland, have developed a technique that makes it possible to identify the user of a mobile phone based on her or his physical movements such as walking style.

Compared with passwords and traditional bioidentification, the new method is simple: confirmation of identity takes place as a background process without any need for user’s intervention.

First though, the mobile phone must be equipped with sensors that measure certain characteristics of the user’s gait. When the device is used for the first time, these measurements are saved in its memory.

In normal use, the device then continuously measures the user’s gait and compares these measurements with the values in its memory. If they are sufficiently identical, the device identifies and approves the user. If the values differ, however, the user needs to enter a password into the phone to verify its ownership.

The researchers say that the technique could also be used to enhance the security of credit cards too.