Designing and Evaluating Scalable Behavioral Biometrics Systems for Pervasive Computing Environments

Principal Investigators

Prof. Dr. Florian Alt, Bundeswehr University Munich, Munich (Homepage)
Prof. Dr. Stefan Schneegass, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen (Homepage)

Pervasive computing environments, such as smart public spaces, contain many different sensing and interaction opportunities for users. One core challenge is authenticating and identifying users to provide customized services. In this project, we investigate how this can be realized using behavioural biometrics. The main research question this project is addressing is how behavioural biometrics approaches scale to different pervasive computing environments containing multiple users with changing behaviour, different physicalities, and changing sensing and interaction capabilities.

Main Research Question

How do behavioural biometrics approaches scale to different pervasive computing environments containing multiple users with changing behaviour, different physicalities, and changing sensing and interaction capabilities?

Sub-Research Questions

Questions that will be addressed in the project include, but are not limited to:

  1. How users’ behaviour is influenced both by multiple other people in the vicinity, characteristics of a space (either public or private), as well as by novel interaction techniques that emerge as a result of more and more computers becoming parts of our everyday life,
  2. How does this influence the way we design and develop behavioural biometrics systems (building and (re-) training user models, storing and exchanging data), and
  3. What this means for behavioural biometrics-based authentication concepts (e.g., how can we build user interfaces that foster a certain behaviour, how can appropriate behavioural traits be identified based on the current context).
Publications

ali1

How Unique do we Move? Understanding the Human Body and Context Factors for User Identification

Abdrabou Y., Mecke L., Rivu R., Prange S., Nguyen Q. D., Voigt V., Alt F., & Pfeuffer K.

MuC 2023

A Systematic Analysis of External Factors Affecting Gait Identification.

Saad, A., Wittig, N., Gruenefeld, U., & Schneegass, S.

IEEE IJCB 2022

PrivacyScout: Assessing Vulnerability to Shoulder Surfing on Mobile Devices.

Bâce, M., Saad, A., Khamis, M. , Schneegass, S. and Bulling, A.

PETS 2022

 

 

Understanding user identification in virtual reality through behavioral biometrics and the effect of body normalization.

Liebers, J., Abdelaziz, M., Mecke, L., Saad, A., Auda, J., Gruenefeld, U., Alt, F., & Schneegass, S.

CHI 2021

SenseHandle: Investigating Human-Door Interaction Behaviour for Authentication in the Physical World.

Delgado Rodriguez, S., Mecke, L., & Alt, F.

 

SOUPS 2022

An Investigation of Shoulder Surfing Attacks on Touch-Based Unlock Events.

Schneegass, S., Saad, A., Heger, R., Delgado Rodriguez, S., Poguntke, R., & Alt, F.

MobileHCI 2022

Beyond passwords—Challenges and opportunities of future authentication.

Alt, F., & Schneegass, S.

IEEE Security&Privacy 2022

 

 

 

Understanding Bystanders’ tendency to shoulder surf smartphones using 360-degree videos in virtual reality.

Saad, A., Liebers, J., Gruenefeld, U., Alt, F., & Schneegass, S.

MobileHCI 2021

ali3

Exploring the Use of Electromagnets to Influence Key Targeting on Physical Keyboards

Mecke, L., Prieto Romero, I., Delgado Rodriguez, S., & Alt, F.

CHI 2023

ali2

HotFoot: Foot-Based User Identification Using Thermal Imaging

Saad, A., Izadi, K., Ahmad Khan, A., Knierim, P., Schneegass, S., Alt, F., & Abdelrahman, Y. 

CHI 2023

Are they actually looking? identifying smartphones shoulder surfing through gaze estimation.

Saad, A., Elkafrawy, D. H., Abdennadher, S., & Schneegass, S. 

ETRA 2020

 

 

ActPad–A Smart Desk Platform to Enable User Interaction with IoT Devices.

Delgado Rodriguez, S., Prange, S., Mecke, L., & Alt, F.

CHI 2021

 

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“I saw your partner naked”: Exploring Privacy Challenges During Video-based Online Meetings

Prange, S., Rodriguez, S. D., Mecke, L., & Alt, F.

MUM 2022

Understanding shoulder surfer behavior and attack patterns using virtual reality.

Abdrabou, Y., Rivu, R., Ammar, T., Liebers, J., Saad, A., Liebers, C., Gruenefeld, U., Knierim, P., Khamis, M., Schneegass, S., & Alt, F.

ACM AVI 2022

Mask removal isn’t always convenient in public!–The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Device Usage and User Authentication.

Saad, A., Gruenefeld, U., Mecke, L., Koelle, M., Alt, F., & Schneegass, S. 

CHI 2022

 

Don’t Use Fingerprint, it’s Raining! How People Use and Perceive Context-Aware Selection of Mobile Authentication.

Prange, S., Mecke, L., Nguyen, A., Khamis, M., & Alt, F.

IEEE IJCB 2022

  1. Abdrabou Y., Mecke L., Rivu R., Prange S., Nguyen Q. D., Voigt V., Alt F., & Pfeuffer K. (2023, September). How Unique do we Move? Understanding the Human Body and Context Factors for User Identification. In Proceedings of the Conference on Mensch Und Computer (MuC ’23)
  2. Saad, A., Izadi, K., Ahmad Khan, A., Knierim, P., Schneegass, S., Alt, F., & Abdelrahman, Y. (2023, April). HotFoot: Foot-Based User Identification Using Thermal Imaging. In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-13). https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3580924
  3. Mecke, L., Prieto Romero, I., Delgado Rodriguez, S., & Alt, F. (2023, April). Exploring the Use of Electromagnets to Influence Key Targeting on Physical Keyboards. In Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-8).http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3544549.3585703
  4. Prange, S., Rodriguez, S. D., Mecke, L., & Alt, F. (2022, November). “I saw your partner naked”: Exploring Privacy Challenges During Video-based Online Meetings. In Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (pp. 71-82). http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3568444.3568468
  5. Saad, A., Wittig, N., Gruenefeld, U., & Schneegass, S. (2022, October). A Systematic Analysis of External Factors Affecting Gait Identification. In 2022 IEEE International Joint Conference on Biometrics (IJCB) (pp. 1-9). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/IJCB54206.2022.10007994
  6. Schneegass, S., Saad, A., Heger, R., Delgado Rodriguez, S., Poguntke, R., & Alt, F. (2022). An Investigation of Shoulder Surfing Attacks on Touch-Based Unlock Events. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 6(MHCI), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1145/3546742
  7. Saad, A., Gruenefeld, U., Mecke, L., Koelle, M., Alt, F., & Schneegass, S. (2022, April). Mask removal isn’t always convenient in public!–The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Device Usage and User Authentication. In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts (pp. 1-7). doi:10.1145/3491101.3519804
  8. Abdrabou, Y., Rivu, R., Ammar, T., Liebers, J., Saad, A., Liebers, C., Gruenefeld, U., Knierim, P., Khamis, M., Schneegass, S., & Alt, F.. (2022, June). Understanding shoulder surfer behavior and attack patterns using virtual reality. In Proceedings of the 2022 International Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces (pp. 1-9). https://doi.org/10.1145/3531073.3531106
  9. Bâce, M., Saad, A., Khamis, M. , Schneegass, S. and Bulling, A. (2022) PrivacyScout: Assessing Vulnerability to Shoulder Surfing on Mobile Devices. In: Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium 2022 (PETS 2022), Sydney, Australia, 11-15 Jul 2022, pp. 650-669. https://doi.org/10.56553/popets-2022-0090
  10. Delgado Rodriguez, S., Mecke, L., & Alt, F. (2022). SenseHandle: Investigating Human-Door Interaction Behaviour for Authentication in the Physical World. In USENIX Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS) (pp. 7-9).
  11. Alt, F., & Schneegass, S. (2022). Beyond passwords—Challenges and opportunities of future authentication. IEEE Security & Privacy, 20(1), 82-86. https://doi.org/10.1109/MSEC.2021.3127459
  12. Saad, A., Liebers, J., Gruenefeld, U., Alt, F., & Schneegass, S. (2021, September). Understanding Bystanders’ tendency to shoulder surf smartphones using 360-degree videos in virtual reality. In Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Mobile Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 1-8). https://doi.org/10.1145/3447526.3472058
  13. Liebers, J., Abdelaziz, M., Mecke, L., Saad, A., Auda, J., Gruenefeld, U., Alt, F., & Schneegass, S. (2021, May). Understanding user identification in virtual reality through behavioral biometrics and the effect of body normalization. In Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-11). http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445528
  14. Delgado Rodriguez, S., Prange, S., Mecke, L., & Alt, F. (2021, May). ActPad–A Smart Desk Platform to Enable User Interaction with IoT Devices. In Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-6). http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3411763.3451825
  15. Saad, A., Elkafrawy, D. H., Abdennadher, S., & Schneegass, S. (2020, June). Are they actually looking? identifying smartphones shoulder surfing through gaze estimation. In ACM symposium on eye tracking research and applications (pp. 1-3). https://doi.org/10.1145/3379157.3391422
  16. Prange, S., Mecke, L., Nguyen, A., Khamis, M., & Alt, F. (2020, September). Don’t Use Fingerprint, it’s Raining! How People Use and Perceive Context-Aware Selection of Mobile Authentication. In Proceedings of the international conference on advanced visual interfaces (pp. 1-5). http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3399715.3399823