Karen Renaud from the Department of Computer Science of the University of Glasgow has been studying authentication systems for school-aged users. She contacted me after learning about Mikons and the MikonMachine. Karen conducted a study to learn if user-created visual symbols were a viable alternative to user-generated passwords. Click here to read the actual paper – it’s facinating.
Ms. Renaud tested an authentication system using Mikons in a classroom setting. Students drew their visual “passwords” using the MikonMachine. To access grades and homework, the students had to correctly identify their Mikon from a host of false targets.
It turns out that Mikons (the user-created visual symbols) proved to be more memorable than passwords – which is not surprising. However, there were issues with other students guessing the symbols of their classmates. Ms. Renaud concludes that using user-generated visual symbols as an authentication system is useful for users with developmental or language difficulties. Also this is appropriate where such systems do not require a high level of security concerns. She intends to study the technique further. More to come…
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