Two-factor authentication codes could get replaced by physical objects, study finds
What if you could use a charm bracelet or a water bottle as your secret password? Researchers at the Florida International University and Bloomberg created a camera-based remote authentication solution to help you do just that on any mobile device.
The solution is called Pixie. To use it, you first pick a secret physical object like a book or a paperweight and take photos of it with a mobile device, creating reference photos. Then, each time you want to use two-factor authentication, you just hold up your trinket to the camera. Pixie is coded to warn you if the images you’ve taken are low quality, but some leeway is programmed in, so that if you unlock your phone in different lighting or take the photo at another angle, it will still...