To overcome password fatigue, many smartphones include facial recognition, fingerprint scans and other biometric systems.
The trouble with these easy-to-use tools is that once they are hacked you cannot reset them. A user cannot grow a new fingerprint or iris if that information is divulged, and thus he cannot reset it like a password.
Wenyao Xu, researcher at the University of Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences: “That's why we're developing a new type of password, one that measures your brainwaves in response to a series of pictures, and use these waves as passwords.”
“This code is vital, easy to use and easy to reset once uncovered,” he said according to the German news agency.
Xu added that he was motivated to create a cancelable biometric password after hackers stole the fingerprint files of workers from the US Office of Personal Management in 2015.
In order to record brainwaves to use them as passwords, the user has to wear a headset, similar to virtual reality headsets, involving six electrodes to record three brain activities in response to shown pictures.
The new system records the brain activity three times: two serve as foundations and the last aims at recording the password. The user is shown the three images in rapid succession and the process is repeated three additional times. By the end of the fourth time, after 4.8 seconds, the brain password is ready.
According to the Phys.org website, while wearing a headset may not appeal to common internet users, Xu said that may change over time, especially if the device is redesigned into something more like Google Glass.
