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Gaze-Tracking Software Protects Computer Privacy
Ponca City, We Love You writes "Two years ago computer security expert Bill Anderson read about scientific research on how the human eye moves as it reads and processes text and images. 'This obscure characteristic... suddenly struck me as (a solution to) a security problem,' says Anderson. With the help of a couple of software developers, Anderson developed a software program called Chameleon that tracks a viewer's gaze patterns and only allows an authorized user to read text on the screen, while everyone else sees gibberish. Chameleon uses gaze-tracking software and camera equipment to track an authorized reader's eyes to show only that one person the correct text. After a 15-second calibration period in which the software learns the viewer's gaze patterns, anyone looking over that user's shoulder sees dummy text that randomly and constantly changes. To tap the broader consumer market, Anderson built a more consumer-friendly version called PrivateEye, which can work with a simple Webcam to blur a user's monitor when he or she turns away. It also detects other faces in the background, and a small video screen pops up to alert the user that someone is looking at the screen. 'There have been inventions in the space of gaze-tracking. There have been inventions in the space of security,' says Anderson. 'But nobody has put the two ideas together, as far as we know.'"
I thought we already had this technology, and it was called "flat screen" technology. I swear I'm not a crotchety old man, but I can't stand flat screen monitors/TV's/laptops. All of them have this same effect, when compared to the bright, clear, viewable-from-any-direction CRT's. I don't care much for saving a few inches in depth, so I try to use CRT's whenever I can, because unless you're sitting directly in front and center of a flat screen anything, it's very difficult to read.
So what happens when you are typing and listening to music, you head is swinging back and forth to the beat? Will the gaze thingy be able to follow or will you pass in and out of it's "verified" zone?
Perhaps it would do better to map your face like they do at gambling casinos. Then if it sees anyone other than your face, it takes corrective action.
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
That sounds pretty cool, it would be a bit like "reading" the matrix. I guess you would get over the distraction of text you're not looking at turning into garbage and start to tune it out.
Does anyone know of a video of this software in action, I'd love to see what it looks like.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
am I the only one that did a double take thinking we were geezer-tracking?
Obama is a twitter sock puppet
All I need is software that will recognize the approach of the boss -- easily discernible by his pointy hair.
I don't know. Just seems simpler to me.
Perhaps this technology might be useful elsewhere.
Deleted
If your workers are handling sensitive material maybe you shouldn't have them in a cubicle with their back to the entrance.
thought they were picking on Clay and the boys . . .
Just kidding
I think this is actually going to be a REALLY big deal. Especially if they can prove that the eye signatures are truly one of a kind in regards to individuals specific patterns. If this is along the same vain as fingerprints in relation to scarcity, then you may now be reading of what could eventually make things like the need for encryption, or even some forms of basic information security obsolete. That is a BIG frickin deal, and may in fact be of such importance that you may see security/encryption companies try to squash this before it could ever become something more than just an idea.
I think this is definetly something worth keeping an eye on (sorry for the pun)
"This is the value of a summer spent and a winter earned"
With regard to over-the-shoulder power, I bought by first CHIMP in 98. Can't work without it.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/accessories/2940/
6th Street Radio @ddombrowsky
This gaze-tracking software will hurt the US military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy.
Chameleon uses gaze-tracking software and camera equipment to track an authorized reader's eyes
Check, that's doable now.
to show only that one person the correct text.
How? Elfin magic? If a screen region under the "authorized reader's" field of view is displaying the protected content to the authorized reader, it's also displaying exactly the same thing to anyone else who happens to be looking at the same area.
So far as I can tell, this is the part of the proof labeled "Magic happens here". Also known as the part of the technology that needs more investment. So invest now!
Where's my flying car, dammit?
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
I can't seem to see a link for a demo (no pun intended). Anyone able to help, pls?
Bark less. Wag more.
I could have used this when I was playing Prince of Persia on one of my previous contracts!!!
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
Her's the Video of Private Eye
This could be the answer Nielsen is looking for.
Health Freedom is almost as popular as Freedom itself.
Now things really will wiggle around when I'm not looking right at them.
How am I supposed to tell the difference between PrivateEye and gremlins?
Porquoi?
Where a guy working for some TLA (three letter agency) was working out of a 'net cafe using a custom boot CD/DVD. The software on it would somehow figure out that there was someone else that could see his screen - gaze tracking, hax0ring the security cam in the establishment, etc - and throw up all sorts of porn. So to the waitress, etc. it seemed he was just a run of the mill perv...
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
What about eye strain from the constant blurring/clarification process?
I would think a person using this technology would have to train themselves not to try and focus on an area of the screen that would normally be in focus until the "gaze" sensor figures out what they're trying to look at.
I have long thought that privacy is the next killer app.
...it will be like the scramble suit from Philip K. Dick's "A Scanner Darkly", but for computer monitors.
(ie. no one will know exactly what kind of porn your looking at)
Screw privacy, I want my window manager to focus the window I'm looking at. Now that would be useful.
Sheldon
This means if I my monitor faces my cubicle entrance and my cubicle happens to be on the way to the bathroom or cafeteria then this software will totally screw my eyes.
-- It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. -- Aristotle
Problem 1: Suppose the gaze-tracking works perfectly under static conditions (during training before the scrambling). Now the scramble kicks in and you've got crap changing all over the screen. You're going to notice that; it's going to be irritating. And when you catch something changing, you're going to look at it. Thus screwing up the algorithm.
Problem 2: The algorithm isn't going to be 100% perfect. And it doesn't have to be camo far off to make melvin unreliable.
This sounds like an awesome development in the area of personal security alright -- especially for looking at porn in your cubicle at work. Your boss or co-worker peers over the wall to try to catch you? No problem, it blurs the screen!
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Yet another piece of biometric technology that means if I'm having an off day, get a twitch in my eye etc. I get locked out of my own data. Yippee!!! Yay!
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Can't track this man's gaze.
Viewer: (thinking to himself) Oh great, a commercial. Time for a potty break. la, la, la (walks away from T.V.)
T.V.: (in loud voice) Alert, Alert, Alert. Viewer, you have been away from the television for 2 minutes and 30 seconds. You now risk violating your television and cable provider's ULA and risk violating section 5, paragraph 10, subsection a of the 2010 DMCA redux and expansion act.
Viewer: Coming, coming...just have to give a quick shake....O.K., I'm here. Whew, that was close.
T.V.: Alert, Alert, Alert!!
Viewer: Wha!, I'm here. I'm watching again for God's sake.
T.V.: Viewer, you twice failed to take visual notice of the coke can product placement in this episode of Friends. You have now violated your television and cable provider's ULA and thus also violated the aforementioned DCMA act. Please place your hands on your head and wait for the authorities to arrive....a little higher please...there you go.
This is really interesting, and would solve casual observing to a large extent, but I wouldn't consider it a high security solution as it could be fairly trivially defeated by a video camera.
I could see where it could be useful for a doctor's office/hospital though to keep medical records secure, or a reception area to automatically screen out snoopers.
The television will not be revolutionized.
Line-of-sight security is not difficult. just don't face the monitor to the door.
If you're working on something that really is sensitive, then it's worth it to arrange for physical security.
PAPER
"eyeLook:Âusing attention to facilitate mobile media consumption" http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1095034.1095050&coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&CFID=43353856&CFTOKEN=45571461
ABSTRACT:
One of the problems with mobile media devices is that they may distract users during critical everyday tasks, such as navigating the streets of a busy city. We addressed this issue in the design of eyeLook: a platform for attention sensitive mobile computing. eyeLook appliances use embedded low cost eyeCONTACT sensors (ECS) to detect when the user looks at the display. We discuss two eyeLook applications, seeTV and seeTXT, that facilitate courteous media consumption in mobile contexts by using the ECS to respond to user attention. seeTV is an attentive mobile video player that automatically pauses content when the user is not looking. seeTXT is an attentive speed reading application that flashes words on the display, advancing text only when the user is looking. By making mobile media devices sensitive to actual user attention, eyeLook allows applications to gracefully transition users between consuming media, and managing life.
Great, now my girlfriend is going to know I'm looking right at the pictures of those "singles" ads when that image is the only thing clear on a blurry screen.
Eye signatures? Doubtful. But it provides security once you've logged in. That's a fairly big deal itself.
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
Of course it's a password I'll be able to steal simply by watching you read.
Sunglasses will be considered a DMCA violation.
.sig withheld by request
The web site doesn't clearly explain the difference between "Chameleon" versus "PrivateEye". I found the answers in this PDF:
http://oculislabs.com/Oculis_Whitepaper_1.pdf
It sounds like PrivateEye is the $19.95 edition for consumers using a simple web cam. Whereas Chameleon is the "high end" version using a special "Gazetracker" hardware device that probably has a much better reaction time. There's no price listing for Chameleon, i.e. it's intended for someone spending taxpayer's money rather than their own.
The demo is on the Chameleon page:
http://oculislabs.com/Products/ChameleonP.htm
It took me awhile to figure out that this "PROTECTING DATA IN USE" image is actually an interactive Flash applet. What you do is hover the mouse over "Oculus in Action", and then wait until a blue/red oval slides across the screen. After the oval disappears, you can use the mouse to bring it back on the screen and move it around. The text inside the oval is readable, everything outside is scrambled.
The obscured text is pretty strange actually. On the "This is what the attacker sees" preview tab, the letters in each word are shuffled and easily deciphered. But on the "Oculus in Action" tab, they substitute random words of equal length, apparently sampled from a corpus of gay Satanic rites:
States --> Yapper
Government --> Satanology
degree --> faerie
classifies --> spermatova
determine --> doohinkus
classifying --> luciferidae
(No joke, these are real excerpts!)
From moving the oval around and trying to read what's inside, it's pretty apparent that reaction time is extremely important to the usability of this product. Since there's no downloadable demo program (and a whole lot of marketing patter), I'm guessing that PrivateEye is way too sluggish to be practical. Chameleon might be usable, but you probably have to pay full price to find that out as well heheh.
-Gonz
We need a simple, open source solution for blocking TEMPEST.
Zero Pad Emission software is free but old and proprietary for Windows (works under Wine). I use it for opening up my passwords lists within my TrueCrypt partitions and containers, but I have no way to know if it really works or not.
Once a simple, open source solution is worked out, it can be something applied to every application, why not in X/org itself?
Blurring the screen may work for local peeping toms in and around the computer rooms, but when it is not blurred and visible, it can be compromised.
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----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
And now it's not a joke.
duh
I can see the advertizing world jumping onboard this one, proposing new ad revenue models where an ad pays the website (or network) as long as the viewers are actually looking at the ad, rather than the page just being up or the channel turned on. Big corporations are probably starting to be fed up paying huge chunks of cash just so people without DVRs can get bathroom breaks without missing a single second of Lost or Monday Night Football.
Does it know exactly what *you* look like? if not, when you go for lunch and someone else sits down, does it just show them the same thing you'd see?
Article, website, nor video mentions facial recognition, only gaze tracking. he literally waves his hand over the webcam to make it switch the screen, which all switches at once. lame! I don't see any useful security application for this at all, though the technology of gaze tracing is neat, especially the expensive stuff linked above.
make my mouse pointer go where i look and i'll be impressed.
whats wrong with using CTRL+ALT+DELETE, ENTER to lock your box?
They're gonna be soOOOooOOoo pissed :)
Expect melodramatic sighs.
... & what if someone just uses a camera
without facing the monitor at all?
He could then quickly continue to the cafeteria & check the image, no prob
Now there's a feature-hole for you
I'm a pirate with an eye patch. Will it work for me?
I don't see how this could ever possib@#$%&*@!!!!#$*(-:''.9>^?#?@:&?(+$@(?}*^|?%#@!|{}(*&?^)"}>*>%#
-- Consensus - 50% probability that the majority are wrong.
http://xkcd.com/129/