Google and University of Guelph team up to abolish Android smartphone passwords

A University of Guelph team has developed a
way to help Google get rid of smartphone
passcodes.

Their work means that soon, the way you
walk, talk and hold your phone will be key
to unlocking the device.

Engineering professor Graham Taylor, grad
student Griffin Lacey and visiting Ph.D.
student Natalia Neverova teamed up with
Google's advanced technology and projects
(ATAP) team for three months between
January and April 2015 at Google's headquarters in California. They recently released the results of their
research.

Together they developed what Taylor calls
"continuous authentication," a system that
taps into the various sensors on your phone
to determine who is using it.


"We all walk, or move our phones in
different ways. And so essentially the phone
has an idea of whose holding it and if it's
not you, it can lock itself automatically. And
if it is you, it will unlock."

Taylor said the system taps into the onboard
technology, including fingerprint scanners,
cameras, accelerometers etc., to authenticate
a user based on those sensors.

Taylor said the feature will be installed on
Android phones in the near-future – but
couldn't give an exact date, saying those
details are being kept secret.