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Measuring How We Play: Authenticating Users with Touchscreen Gameplay

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Mobile Computing, Applications, and Services (MobiCASE 2018)

Abstract

Mobile devices are being used to access and store an ever-increasing amount of sensitive data. Due to their compact form factor, mobile devices can be easily lost or stolen. Yet users frequently choose not to enable authentication or select authentication methods which are insufficient to protect their devices, placing user information at risk. In this paper, we propose the use of a behavioral biometric based approach to authentication that functions by modeling the manner in which users interact wit mobile games, which are one of the most popular uses of mobile devices. We conducted an IRB approved study in which 30 participants were asked to play three popular Android games as well as utilize a mobile touchscreen without any gameplay prompting. We extracted features from users’ touchscreen activity during these interactions, then applied a Support Vector Machine to classify users based on patterns which emerged from their usage during the game. Our results indicate that using gameplay as a behavioral biometric is an effective means of authenticating users to their mobile devices, but care must be taken to select a game which encourages users to make frequent distinctive gestures.

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Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Graduate Assistant Tuan Ngyuen for his efforts performing the study reported in this paper and Graduate Assistant Sheharyar Naseer for his editing assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. New York Institute of Technology, New York, NY, 10023, USA

    Jonathan Voris

Authors
  1. Jonathan Voris
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Correspondence to Jonathan Voris .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ritsumeikan University, Kusatsu-shi, Shiga, Japan

    Kazuya Murao

  2. Toyohashi University of Technology, Toyohashi-shi, Aichi, Japan

    Ren Ohmura

  3. Kyushu Institute of Technology, Kitakyushu-shi, Fukuoka, Japan

    Sozo Inoue

  4. Okayama University, Okayama-shi, Okayama, Japan

    Yusuke Gotoh

A Appendix: Study Questionnaire

A Appendix: Study Questionnaire

Table 6 lists the survey questions that were used in our study in the order they were presented to participants.

Table 6. Post-conditional study questionnaire
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© 2018 ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering

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Voris, J. (2018). Measuring How We Play: Authenticating Users with Touchscreen Gameplay. In: Murao, K., Ohmura, R., Inoue, S., Gotoh, Y. (eds) Mobile Computing, Applications, and Services. MobiCASE 2018. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 240. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90740-6_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90740-6_9

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-90739-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-90740-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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