Engineers use video games instead of passwords as "cognitive fingerprints" for authenticating identity

Engineering specialists at the Southwest Research Institute aim to replace log-in passwords with video game puzzles, utilizing players' unique ways of problem-solving as "cognitive fingerprints" for authenticating identity, reports Fox News.

SRI calls this type of data protection "covert-conditioned biometrics." The process itself relies on principles of game theory, as well as behavior modification techniques and adaptive learning, to construct and identify each user's "cognitive footprint."

In the program, would-be users are taken through unique sets of problem-solving puzzles, and the team asserts the system will recognize its user based on the way they solve these puzzles. A different user trying to gain access will have a different response pattern to the puzzles, and will initiate a warning and fail the log-in.

The team at SRI has experience in creating educational software and researching learning science, and has paired up with customized research and marketing firm Sentier Strategic Resources for testing the process on human subjects.