BioGames: a new paradigm and a behavioral biometrics collection tool for research purposes

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a new paradigm, named BioGames, for the extraction of behavioral biometrics (BB) conveniently and entertainingly. To apply the BioGames paradigm, the authors developed a BB collection tool for mobile devices named BioGames App. The BioGames App collects keystroke dynamics, touch gestures, and motion modalities and is available on GitHub. Interested researchers and practitioners may use it to create their datasets for research purposes. Design/methodology/approach One major challenge for BB and continuous authentication (CA) research is the lack of actual BB datasets for research purposes. The compilation and refinement of an appropriate set of BB data constitute a challenge and an open problem. The issue is aggravated by the fact that most users are reluctant to participate in long demanding procedures entailed in the collection of research biometric data. As a result, they do not complete the data collection procedure, or they do not complete it correctly. Therefore, the authors propose a new paradigm and introduce a BB collection tool, which they call BioGames, for the extraction of biometric features in a convenient way. The BioGames paradigm proposes a methodology where users play games without participating in an experimental painstaking process. The BioGames App collects keystroke dynamics, touch gestures, and motion modalities. Findings The authors proposed a new paradigm for the collection of BB on mobile devices and created the BioGames application. The BioGames App is an Android application that collects BB data on mobile devices and sends them to a database. The database design allows multiple users to store their sensor data at any time. Thus, there is no concern about data separation and synchronization. BioGames App is General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliant as it collects and processes only anonymous data. Originality/value The BioGames App is a publicly available tool that combines the keystroke dynamics, touch gestures, and motion modalities. In addition, it uses a methodology where users play games without participating in an experimental painstaking process.

The utility of behavioral biometrics in user authentication and demographic characteristic detection: a scoping review

“…This tool additionally integrated movement into its scheme, presenting a multi-modal authentication method. Another more recent development in behavioral biometrics is the generation of behavioral biometric datasets using engaging tools [ 164 , 165 ]. There have been challenges in collecting biometric data on participants due to the long protocols necessary to capture sufficient amount of data [ 164 ].…”

BioPrivacy: a behavioral biometrics continuous authentication system based on keystroke dynamics and touch gestures

“…When a user types on the BioPrivacy’s keyboard, the inputs are recorded and analyzed to identify him based on his tapping habits (Stylios et al , 2021b; Chang et al , 2016). The BioPrivacy application extracts the duration and latency of the pressure on keys and the location points of fingers as described (Stylios et al , 2021b; Lamiche et al , 2019; Alves et al , 2014; Zhang et al , 2016; Stylios et al , 2021a): Duration : is the time period between pressing and releasing a key. Latency : is the time period between releasing a pressed key until pressing the next key. Pressure : is the pressure on a key. Location : are the location points (xi, yi) of the finger on the screen. …”

“…The BioPrivacy application extracts the location points, the time stamps and the pressure of touch. Each of them can be encoded as a series of vectors (Stylios et al , 2021a): where x i ,y i are the location points, and t i ,p i are the time stamps and the pressure on screen, respectively. Here, N is the total number of swipes.…”

“…We collect gestures such as swipe left/swipe right, swipe up/swipe down, which are widely used. Also, we collect some special gestures such as single or multiple fingers touches and swipe up or down in a specific area because they can be used for CA (Stylios et al , 2021a).…”

“…When a user types on the BioPrivacy's keyboard, the inputs are recorded and analyzed to identify him based on his tapping habits (Stylios et al, 2021b;Chang et al, 2016). The BioPrivacy application extracts the duration and latency of the BioPrivacy pressure on keys and the location points of fingers as described (Stylios et al, 2021b;Lamiche et al, 2019;Alves et al, 2014;Zhang et al, 2016;Stylios et al, 2021a):…”