By focusing more on user experience,
eye-tracking systems could finally start to appeal to a wider audience.
Though more secure than a password or a pin code, this technology still
needs to gain acceptance.
Passwords are still the most widely
used electronic authentication systems for protecting our bank accounts,
email boxes and Facebook profiles. For some time now, technologies
using fingerprints or face and eye recognition techniques have been
making headway, but have not yet found wide appeal. Now a study on
Perceptions of Interfaces for Eye Movement Biometrics
carried out by three researchers at the University of Washington,
Seattle, and Texas State University in the United States, shows that the
reason for this disenchantment may simply be due to the fact that
research carried out so far has not placed sufficient emphasis on the
user experience. Referring to eye-tracking prototypes designed by the
team, Michael Brooks, a doctoral student at the University of
Washington, stresses that “it would have been difficult to design these
prototypes without obtaining feedback from users early on.” To put their
theories into practice, the researchers set up a practical test:
simulating cash-withdrawals from an ATM.
Eye movements are unique to each person
For the experiment, the researchers developed an ATM-lookalike
computer screen with eye-tracking technology. The technology uses
infrared light which, when a user’s eye is following a dot or words on
the computer screen, reflects off the surface of the eyeball back to the
camera. When the people taking part in the study came to withdraw
money, they were presented with three alternative types of user
authentication: a standard four-number PIN; a target-based game that
tracks a person’s gaze; and a reading exercise which follows how a
user’s eyes move past each word. When interviewed afterwards, most of
the guinea pigs said they do not trust the standard push-button PIN used
in most ATMs, although they did like the speed it offers. Moreover,
most assumed that the more advanced technologies would provide the best
security. These new options could therefore serve as models for future
versions.
Technology that can be used on every device
However the test also showed that when authentication failed – the
research team deliberately caused a number of failures – the test
participants tended to lose faith in the eye-tracking systems. This
study clearly demonstrated that future eye-tracking technology needs to
give clear error messages or directions on how users should proceed if
their authentication fails. “The error messages we provided and the
feedback we gave were really important for making it usable,” Michael
Brooks underlined. In addition to experimenting on users, the study also
set out to show that eye-tracking signatures can be used with
inexpensive cameras instead of specialised eye-tracking hardware,”
pointed out lead researcher Cecilia Aragon. The researchers plan to look
next at developing similar eye-tracking authentication for other
systems that use basic cameras, such as desktop computers. A similar
design could be used to log in or gain access to a secure website. “This
is the beginning of looking at biometric authentication as a
socio-technical system, where not only does it need to be efficient and
accurate, but also something that people trust,” underlined Cecilia
Aragon.
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