Method and apparatus for verification of a computer user's identification, based on keystroke characteristics

US5557686A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• The Board of Trustees of The University of Alabama · US

Inventors

• Marcus E. Brown · Tuscaloosa, US
• Samuel Rogers · Breckenridge, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jan 13, 1993
• Grant date: Sep 17, 1996
• Expiry date: Jan 13, 2013

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G07C9/33
• WIPO field: Control
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A method and apparatus for determining whether a user of a system is an authorized user or an imposter by examining the keystroke characteristics of the user. The authorized user initially enters a number of user training samples on a keyboard. The user training samples are then purified to eliminate training samples which are different from other training samples. The purification can be performed by a self-organizing neural network which has input thereto, authorized user training samples, or both authorized training samples and imposter training samples. The purified user training samples are then compared to a sample to be tested to determine whether the sample is from an authorized user or an imposter. The comparison of the purified samples with the sample to be tested can be performed by a neural network such as a back propagation trained network, an ADALINE unit, a distance method or a linear classifier, discriminate function, or piecewise linear classifier. The result of this testing step indicates whether the user is authorized or an imposter and the user can be granted or denied access to the system.