Date of Award

5-2015

Type

Thesis

Major

Computer Science - Applied Computing Track

Degree Type

Master of Science in Applied Computer Science

Department

TSYS School of Computer Science

First Advisor

Dr. Radhouane Chouchane

Second Advisor

Dr. Yesem Peker

Third Advisor

Dr. Charles Turnitsa

Abstract

As of January 2014, 58% of Americans over the age of 18 own a smart phone. Of these smart phones, Android devices provide some security by requiring that third-party application developers declare to users which components and features their applications will access. However, many of the real-time environmental sensors on devices are exempt from this requirement. We evaluate the possibility of exploiting this freedom to discretely use these sensors and expand on previous work by developing an application that can use the gyroscope and accelerometer to interpret what the user has written, even of trace input is used. Trace input is an option available on Samsung's default keyboard as well as in many popular third-party keyboard applications, such as Swype, SwiftKey, TouchPal, and GO Keyboard. "Tracing" an input involves the user dragging from the first letter of the intended word to the last letter without lifting his or her finger. The inclusion of trace input in a key logger application increases the amount of personal information that can be captured since users may choose to use the time saving trace-based input as opposed to the traditional tapping-based input. In this work, we attempt to interpret user input using accelerometer and gyroscope data given single letter tap and full word trace inputs.

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