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An Empirical Study of Picture Password Composition on Smartwatches

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Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2021 (INTERACT 2021)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 12935))

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Abstract

Recent research works suggest that human cognitive differences affect security and usability of picture passwords within a variety of interaction contexts, such as conventional desktops, smartphones, and extended reality. However, the interplay of human cognition towards users’ interaction behavior and security of picture passwords on smartwatch devices has not been investigated so far. In this paper, we report on such a research attempt that embraced a between-subjects in-lab user study (n = 50) in which users were classified according to their cognitive processing characteristics (i.e., Field Dependence-Independence cognitive differences), and further composed a picture password on a smartwatch device. Analysis of results reveal that already known effects of human cognition towards interaction behavior and security of picture passwords within conventional interaction contexts, do not necessarily replicate when these are deployed on smartwatch devices. Findings point towards the need to design for diversity and device-aware picture password schemes.

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Acknowledgements

This research has been partially supported by the EU Horizon 2020 Grant 826278 “Securing Medical Data in Smart Patient-Centric Healthcare Systems” (Serums), the Research and Innovation Foundation (Project DiversePass: COMPLEMENTARY/0916/0182), and the European project TRUSTID - Intelligent and Continuous Online Student Identity Management for Improving Security and Trust in European Higher Education Institutions (Grant Agreement No: 2020–1-EL01-KA226-HE-094869), which is funded by the European Commission within the Erasmus+ 2020 Programme and the Greek State Scholarships Foundation I.K.Y.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cognitive UX GmbH, Heidelberg, Germany

    Marios Belk

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Marios Belk, Eleni Katsi, Argyris Constantinides & Andreas Pitsillides

  3. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Patras, Patras, Greece

    Christos Fidas

  4. Cognitive UX LTD, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Argyris Constantinides

Authors
  1. Marios Belk
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  2. Christos Fidas
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  3. Eleni Katsi
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  4. Argyris Constantinides
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  5. Andreas Pitsillides
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marios Belk .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, Polytechnic University of Bari, Bari, Italy

    Carmelo Ardito

  2. Computer Science Department, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

    Rosa Lanzilotti

  3. Computer Science Department, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Alessio Malizia

  4. Department of Computer Science, University of York, York, UK

    Helen Petrie

  5. Computer Science Department, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

    Antonio Piccinno

  6. Computer Science Department, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

    Giuseppe Desolda

  7. Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA, USA

    Kori Inkpen

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Belk, M., Fidas, C., Katsi, E., Constantinides, A., Pitsillides, A. (2021). An Empirical Study of Picture Password Composition on Smartwatches. In: Ardito, C., et al. Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2021. INTERACT 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12935. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85610-6_37

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85610-6_37

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-85609-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-85610-6

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