OneButtonPIN app buzzes fingers to help blind users unlock their phone
Ben Coxworth
Entering passcodes on smartphones can be difficult for the blind, as
they can't see the screen, nor can they tell if someone else is peeking
at it. The OneButtonPIN app is designed to help, by utilizing vibrations
instead of visuals.
Created by scientists at Canada's University of Waterloo and New York's
Rochester Institute of Technology, the prototype app is intended to
address the shortcomings not only of onscreen keypads, but also of
biometric systems. The latter can be stymied by variables such as
lighting conditions, plus it's difficult to update a biometric
"password" if changes have occurred to the user's face or fingerprints.
OneButtonPIN gets around such limitations, beginning with one big
virtual button on the smartphone's screen. When the user presses that
button and holds it, the phone starts producing a series of vibrations,
separated from one another by short pauses. These vibrations can be felt
through the finger or thumb that's on the screen, but they're not audible.
To input a certain number, the user just counts the vibrations, then
releases the button once the corresponding number of vibrations has
occurred. The next number can then be entered simply by pressing and
holding the button again.
In a test of the technology, nine BLV (blind and low-vision) volunteers
were tasked with using the app to enter several randomly generated PINs
(personal identification numbers), plus they were told to use the app at
least once a day for a week. It was found that the participants were
able to enter the PINs with an average accuracy of 83.6%, as compared to
78.1% for traditional methods.
In a second test, 10 sighted volunteers watched videos of people
entering PINs via both traditional methods and the OneButtonPIN app. The
participants were able to successfully guess the PINs when traditional
methods were used, but they couldn't guess any of the PINs when the app
was utilized.
As an added benefit, it is believed that once OneButtonPIN is widely
available, it may even find use with sighted individuals.
"While OneButtonPIN was designed for BLV people, many users will
appreciate the added security," said Waterloo's Dr. Stacey Watson. "When
we make things more accessible, we make things more usable for the
average user as well."
The app is described in a paper that was recently published in the
journal Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction.
Source: University of Waterloo
https://newatlas.com/good-thinking/onebuttonpin-app-blind-smartphone-security/
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