E-pet could soon replace passwords

E-pet could soon replace passwords
3 May 2008, 0016 hrs IST,PTI

LONDON: If scientists are to be believed, portable electronic pets able to recognise their owner's voice and walking style could soon replace passwords and PINs as a way to keep personal details and accounts secure.

A British team, led by Pamela Briggs of Northumbria University, is developing a gadget called biometric daemons which will match the security of biometric security systems and avoid the privacy fears these systems raise.

According to Briggs, instead of a person's biometric signature being stored on a distant database, they will reside only in the daemon carried around by its owner.

Like a real pet, that daemon would learn to imprint itself on its owner. After that it would thrive on their unique biometric signals, such as voiceprint, fingerprints or walking style.

The human-daemon bond would be further cemented by games and interaction between the two. "Think how people bond with babies. You would do the same things with your daemon - cuddle it, stroke it, play verbal games," Briggs said.

In the presence of its owner, those nourishing signals make the daemon "happy" and able to verify the owner's identity, just like a PIN or password. However, separated from its owner, a daemon would no longer receive nourishment in this way and would pine away and die.

The researchers are reluctant to discuss exactly what form that the daemons would take. "The key thing is not the daemon's physical form, but the way one interacts with it," Briggs was quoted by the media as saying.

According to her, the daemon could be made in any form, she says, depending on what people relate to best - for example, a toy animal. "If a person lost their daemon, their access to their online life would be lost too, so a way to get a new one would be needed."

Reaction to the idea from security experts is mixed. "Work on agents and daemons do not tend to be very rigorous," says John Daugman at the University of Cambridge, UK. "It is difficult to find very much scientific or mathematical content to sink one's teeth into."

Alec Yasinsac at Florida State University, Tallahassee, US, says the idea is interesting, but so far immature. "It is hard to predict its potential," says Yasinsac.