Investigating the Use of Gesture-Based Passwords by the Seniors

Older adults in the US are the fastest-growing demographic group, and also the fastest-growing group of internet users [1]. Many computer related tasks, such as user authentication, could be a challenge for the seniors as their cognitive and physical capabilities decline. To date, the most commonly used authentication method is alphanumeric passwords, which have substantial challenges regarding security and usability [2]. Authentication using traditional alphanumeric passwords can be particularly problematic for the seniors because secure passwords are usually hard to remember [3]. Therefore, due to memory loss, one common problem associated with aging, the traditional alphanumeric passwords could be challenging for the seniors to recall and manage. To address this challenge, we developed a gesture-based password application as an alternative to the traditional alphanumeric passwords [4]. Preliminary studies suggest that users could learn the new password method in fairly short amount of time [5]. In this paper, we report an empirical user study to investigate how the seniors interact with the gesture password application.