Information hiding through time synchronization

• US 20050010768A1
• Filed: 07/08/2003
• Published: 01/13/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/08/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Sundararajan, Muralidharan, Pering, Trevor A., Want, Roy, Light, John J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,337,466 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/168
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/34 involving the use of external additional devices, e.g. dongles or smart cards
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/36 by graphic or iconic representation

Abstract

Authenticating a user operating a portable computing device includes causing a sequence of images to be shown on a display, accepting an input selection from the user indicating that a currently displayed image of the sequence of images corresponds to a portion of the user'"'"'s password, the user'"'"'s password being known by the portable computing device, correlating the input selection to the currently displayed image, and allowing access to the portable computing device when the input selection and the currently displayed image temporally correspond to the portion of the user'"'"'s password.

Claims

1. A method of authenticating a user attempting to access a portable computing device comprising:

causing a sequence of images to be shown on a display;

accepting an input selection from the user indicating that a currently displayed image of the sequence of images corresponds to a portion of the user'"'"'s password, the user'"'"'s password being known by the portable computing device;

correlating the input selection to the currently displayed image; and

allowing access to the portable computing device when the input selection and the currently displayed image temporally correspond to the portion of the user'"'"'s password.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the password comprises a plurality of portions, and further comprising repeating the causing, accepting and correlating for each of the plurality of password portions, and allowing access to the portable computing device when all input selections correlated to displayed images temporally correspond to the password.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein causing the sequence of images to be shown on a display comprises sending the sequence of images over a wireless link to a computing system including the display.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising setting the user password in the portable computing device prior to causing the sequence of images to be shown on the display.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein each image of the sequence of images comprises a plurality of symbols, the symbols comprising at least one of alphanumeric characters, playing card values, sports team logos, company logos, cartoon characters, and photographs, and each password portion comprises at least one symbol.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising causing the display of visual feedback to the user when a portion of the user'"'"'s password is correctly selected.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the display is part of a computing system un-trusted by the user.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising establishing an authenticated connection from the portable computing device to the un-trusted computing system including the display prior to causing the sequence of images to be shown on the display.

9. An article comprising:

a storage medium having a plurality of machine readable instructions, wherein when the instructions are executed by a processor, the instructions provide for authenticating a user attempting to access a portable computing device by

causing a sequence of images to be shown on a display;

accepting an input selection from the user indicating that a currently displayed image of the sequence of images corresponds to a portion of the user'"'"'s password, the user'"'"'s password being known by the portable computing device;

correlating the input selection to the currently displayed image; and

allowing access to the portable computing device when the input selection and the currently displayed image temporally correspond to the portion of the user'"'"'s password.

10. The article of claim 9, wherein the password comprises a plurality of portions, and further comprising instructions for repeating the causing, accepting and correlating for each of the plurality of password portions, and instructions for allowing access to the portable computing device when all input selections correlated to displayed images temporally correspond to the password.

11. The article of claim 9, wherein instructions for causing the sequence of images to be shown on a display comprises instructions for sending the sequence of images over a wireless link to a computing system including the display.

12. The article of claim 9, further comprising instructions for setting the user password in the portable computing device prior to causing the sequence of images to be shown on the display.

13. The article of claim 9, wherein each image of the sequence of images comprises a plurality of symbols, the symbols comprising at least one of alphanumeric characters, playing card values, sports team logos, company logos, cartoon characters, and photographs, and each password portion comprises at least one symbol.

14. The article of claim 9, further comprising instructions for causing the display of visual feedback to the user when a portion of the user'"'"'s password is correctly selected.

15. The article of claim 9, further comprising instructions for establishing an authenticated connection from the portable computing device to an un-trusted computing system including the display prior to causing the sequence of images to be shown on the display.

16. A portable computing device comprising:

a memory to store instructions and data;

a processor to execute the instructions obtained from the memory to cause a sequence of images to be shown on a display of an un-trusted computing system, to accept an input selection from a user indicating that a currently displayed image of the sequence of images corresponds to a portion of the user'"'"'s password, the user'"'"'s password being known by the portable computing device, to correlate the input selection to the currently displayed image; and

to allow access to the portable computing device when the input selection and the currently displayed image temporally correspond to the portion of the user'"'"'s password.

17. The portable computing device of claim 16, wherein the portable computing device comprises a wireless communications module for sending the sequence of images to be shown on the display over a wireless link to the un-trusted computing system.

18. The portable computing device of claim 16, wherein each image of the sequence of images comprises a plurality of symbols, the symbols comprising at least one of alphanumeric characters, playing card values, sports team logos, company logos, cartoon characters, and photographs, and each password portion comprises at least one symbol.

19. The portable computing device of claim 16, wherein the memory further comprises instructions to establish an authenticated connection from the portable computing device to the un-trusted computing system prior to causing the sequence of images to be shown on the display.

20. The portable computing device of claim 16, further comprising a button for entering the input selection by the user, the button indicating one of activation and non-activation.

21. The portable computing device of claim 16, wherein the memory stores the user'"'"'s password and the sequence of images.