We designed a haptic authentication system with a personal identification (ID) tag equipped with an embedded acceleration sensor and a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag that can be used in automated security systems. In the suggested system, users generate a passcode by haptic manipulation of an ID tag instead of typing in passwords using a keypad. An ID tag may be an ideal personalized gadget for ID authentication in many circumstances. The core of the proposed haptic authentication system is the activity-recognizable process that can be manipulated by the probabilistic model we developed and generate a much more secure passcode for authentication. With the system learning a total of 250 trials by 50 users for each haptic gesture, the average successful classification rate for the four-digit haptic passcode authentication was 88.9% using the probabilistic model we developed. Some haptic gestures, such as vertical upward flipping of the ID tag, showed lower accuracy than others due to the difficulty in haptic manipulation of the ID tag. From a copying attack experiment to examine the reliability of our haptic passcode scheme, it was proved that the haptic gestures with enough digits, apparently at least 6, were difficult enough to resist being copied by attackers. The same authentication scheme can also be applied for other personal devices that can be manipulated by hands for making haptic gestures, such as a mobile phone.

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