New secure keyboard tracks typing styles

SCIENTISTS are testing a new keyboard that could make it easier for CIOs to secure corporate computers.

New keyboards could identify users by variations in their typing styles.

SCIENTISTS are testing a new keyboard that could make it easier for CIOs to secure corporate computers.

The keyboard identifies computer users by variations in their typing styles. When used with a password, the typing pattern technology could potentially offer increased computer security because the system could reject any user whose typing did not match the password and electronic pattern.

The keyboard works by capturing the electrical charge emanating from human skin. Software then differentiates users by their typing pattern, which is similar to the uniqueness of a fingerprint, say scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chongqing University and the University of California, Riverside. The scientists, led by Jun Chen and Zhong Lin Wang, tested the keyboard on 104 users, of varying genders and ages. In typing, each produced a different pattern of impulses.

Dr Wang said more extensive testing, including testing to determine if the keyboard could sustain enough human keystroke energy to boost a smartphone’s charge, was in the works.

Using keystrokes to access computers is part of a “post-password” era in which many companies see biometrics as the future of corporate security.