“We
find that brainwave signals, even those collected using low-cost non-intrusive
EEG sensors in everyday settings, can be used to authenticate users with high
degrees of accuracy”
UC Berkley School of
Information led by Professor John Chuang paper on using Passthoughts that can
potentially replace Passwords
Remember
the IndieGogo funded Interaxon and their latest Bluetooth-connected Mind
Controller, the Muse as described in my blog
article entitled “IndieGogo
funded Interaxon debut US$199 Muse Mind Controller at Le Web in France - Future
Silver Lining Playbook for Gaming that'll Exercise the Windmills of Your Mind”.
Well,
the Muse and other EEG controllers of its ilk are already poised for great
things in 2013. The Muse and other Alpha and Beta wave based computer
Controllers may end up doing more than relaxing you mind and playing games as
noted in my Geezam Blog
article entitled “Interaxon’s
Muse Mind Controller and Tailly the Wearable Tail”.
This
as a team from UC Berkley School of
Information led by Professor John Chuang have developed a method of using you
Alpha and Beta Waves to create a replacement for Passwords, effectively
Passthoughts as reported in
“Researchers Look to Replace Passwords With 'Passthoughts'”,
published April 10, 2013 03:35pm EST by Chloe Albanesius, PCWorld
and “Passwords are so last
season, ‘pass-thoughts’ let you log in with your mind”,
published April 8, 2013 By Mariella Moon, DigitalTrends.
Basically,
they’ve taken off-the-shelf Neurosky MindSet EEG (Electro EncephaloGraph) Headgear
and modified it to convert your conscious thoughts represented by Alpha and
Beta Wave pattern that’s as unique as your fingerprint or even a scan of your
iris in your eyes.
Test
subjects looked at a series of pictures and produce passthoughts to train the
algorithm to recognize it’s them, effectively a kind of authentication
procedure. Next the subjects were all asked to think up unique thoughts , the
Alpha and Beta Waves for which were stored as a password.
Passthoughts,
as I’d like to call them, can be an effective replacement for passwords, as
already the team from UC Berkley School
of Information has achieve error rates of 1% as reported in “Researchers Replace Passwords With
Mind-Reading Passthoughts”, published 04/09/2013 by Camille
Bautista, Mashable meaning that 1 in every 100 passwords are
reproducible by another subject i.e we’re thinking on the same wavelength, get
it?!
This
is sorta acceptable but can be improved upon via encryption and improved
filtering of Alpha and Beta Waves. In addition, it teaches the user to focus
and relax more and thus makes them better at producing more unique passthoughts
that are more difficult for someone else to think up, pun not intended.
Additionally,
it nearly impossible to hack your brainwaves or even mimic them, as even if two
test subjects look at the same picture and have the same Alpha and Beta Waves,
slight differences in the patterns make them unique, like Fingerprints and
Retinas.
The
only way a hacker can hack your password is unless the hacker hacked the EEG
device that was transmitting the passthought and thus could copy and reuse that
passthought to access anything you have access. Even then, they’d have to mimic
the authentication pattern of the user, which would be next to impossible, as
not all great minds think alike. Sorry, that another horrible pun.
Effectively
passthought are a fun way to replace a
tedious part of logging on to Secure Databases, Internet and devices such as
smartphones and Tablets as you merely have to think of a pleasant non- physical
thought and the algorithm reads it as a password as noted in “Passthoughts? Brainwave-Based Passwords
a Reality”, published Apr 11, 2013 7:57am By Joanna Stern, ABC News.
Demonstrating
that Mind Reading Computer Peripherals made by such companies as Neurosky as
described in my blog
article entitled “Neurosky,
Mind Controlled Games and Movable Ears - CNET Crave's Alpha and Beta Future of
Gaming” are more than merely curious toys or a passing fad
in computer Peripherals. They may be the ultimate replacement for passwords and
cheaper than other Biometric systems of identification.
Strong
evidence, if not proof, that Interaxon’s Muse can be more than just a party
favour. Ditto too for Neurosky’s Necomimi Ears and that cute EEG (Electro
Encephalo Graph) controlled Tail as alluded in my Geezam Blog
article entitled “Interaxon’s
Muse Mind Controller and Tailly the Wearable Tail”!
A
little Research and Developer enthusiasm can go a long way to developing useful
produces, eventually making Passthought a standard to replace passwords, despite
the amusing opinion piece by CNET’s Chris Matyszczyk in his article “Why bother with passwords when you can
have passthoughts?”, published April 8, 2013 12:27 PM PDT
by Chris Matyszczyk, CNET
News.
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