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Sign Your Name Online With A Mouse

Posted by simoniker on from the signing-mickey-mouse-frowned-upon dept.

icke writes "Soon, the way you use your mouse could help prove who you are. According to a BBC News article, scientists have found a way for people to sign their name online using a mouse instead of a pen. The technology, based on the research from Queen Mary College, University of London by Peter McOwan, 'uses a neural network to pick out the unique features of the way that someone uses a mouse.'"

3 of 236 comments (clear)

  1. what if... by Kewjoe · · Score: 0, Redundant

    you switch mice? go from a trackball to a normal mouse, or go to a touch pad? there is no way you can write a signature the same way. Would you have to have a signature for every mouse in existence?

  2. What If by SirDrinksAlot · · Score: 1, Redundant

    What if you use a trackball on one machine and a mouse on another?

    I have one of each on both of the computers I Use. A Trackball on my laptop since I dont really need a surface to use it and an optical mouse on my desktop machine.

    Wouldnt my fingerprint be different on each of my machines then?

  3. Another silliness by tftp · · Score: 1, Redundant
    What was the problem they are solving? How again it is better than a password, or a X.509 certificate stored in your USB key?

    I'd classify this invention as similar to Segway in its utter uselessness. Some laugh at people who ride Segway in a park instead of walking (as humans are built to do); in the same manner some would be laughing at people who are busily wiggling the mouse trying to buy something online, instead of plugging the key (or just their password) into the system.

    Again we see an invention that solves a problem that does not exist... could they please find a problem and only then get busy? Is it too much to ask, for example, to develop a wireless mouse that is using forward error correction and checksums, so that it does not "jump around" as most wireless garbage does? That would be something useful.