02-02-2004, 08:00 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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SignWise: Signature-Based Protection For Your Pocket PC
"There are many applications that protect access to PDAs, but almost all of them use passwords or PINs to authenticate the user to his or her device. SignWise uses personal hand-written signature to authenticate. Signatures are much more secure than passwords or PINs in that they cannot be lost, forgotten, or shoulder-surfed, and are extremely difficult to forge."
Looks interesting -- has anyone tried it?
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02-02-2004, 08:22 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 251
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I'm not sure this is such a good idea. I mean, when I sign on those computerized pads for credit card purchases, my signature looks really wonky. What if your digitizer gets messed up?
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02-02-2004, 08:27 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,264
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Looks cool, but is their a failsafe of a password in the event for some reason it won't recognize your sig?
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02-02-2004, 08:46 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 15
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by ucfgrad93
I'm not sure this is such a good idea. I mean, when I sign on those computerized pads for credit card purchases, my signature looks really wonky. What if your digitizer gets messed up?
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My signature is pretty crappy on those credit card machines too, but I think your handheld might have higher resolution or something? I guess the test would be to sign your name on the hand held in Word or something else that would just capture it as a drawing.
It doesn't have to recognize it, meaning convert it to text, because it analyzes the pattern. If you could consistantly sign your name the same way on your hand held, chances are it would work pretty well.
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02-02-2004, 09:21 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 541
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If you have an intensive program running when you turn it off (ie a game or something) the security will kick in, and when you turn it on, the digitizer will update very slowly in some instances, which may make it impossible to sign correctly, that could be a problem for some people.
I don't know about this specific program, but I've used these before, and I was able to forge the signature quite a bit, just by looking at it. Other than those, looks like a cool product, and even has a calendar/clock on the screen, a nice feature.
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02-02-2004, 09:25 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 437
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I remember reading a horror story about this software in the microsoft.public.pocketpc newsgroup. Somebody installed the time-limited demo, let the time run out on the demo, and then could no longer enter their pocketpc because the software would only show the expiration screen and the only option was entering a registration number. Since Signwise runs at startup, that left this person with three options...
1. buy the software (love a forced purchase don't you?)
2. hard-reset
3. travel back in time and uninstall the demo before it expires.
#3 might not be as cost-effective
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02-02-2004, 09:35 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 258
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Biometric
This is similar to CIC's Sign-On for PalmOS that I used 2 years ago. Its good but gets all deary after a while having to sign in every time i need to unlock. However I stop using it because I never change my signature. What's to stop someone from searching the rubbish for my signature?
Having said that signature is still better than fingerprint scanning which is basically unchangeable. Fingerprints can be copied: http://www.itu.int/itudoc/itu-t/work...esent/s5p4.pdf
I think pin numbers are safer as people change them more often.
Incidentally there was a version of Sign-On for PPC.
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02-02-2004, 09:59 PM
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Oracle
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 841
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Re: Biometric
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Originally Posted by jonathanchoo
This is similar to CIC's Sign-On for PalmOS that I used 2 years ago. Its good but gets all deary after a while having to sign in every time i need to unlock. However I stop using it because I never change my signature. What's to stop someone from searching the rubbish for my signature?
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I posted this on Geekzone exactly for this reason... I've used the CIC Sign-on for Palm OS years ago :lol:
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02-02-2004, 10:06 PM
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Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 6,878
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Godsongz
I remember reading a horror story about this software in the microsoft.public.pocketpc newsgroup. Somebody installed the time-limited demo, let the time run out on the demo, and then could no longer enter their pocketpc because the software would only show the expiration screen and the only option was entering a registration number. Since Signwise runs at startup, that left this person with three options...
1. buy the software (love a forced purchase don't you?)
2. hard-reset
3. travel back in time and uninstall the demo before it expires.
#3 might not be as cost-effective
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I would be very suprised if the SW manufacturer didn't have a resolution to this problem. (maybe a temp code that you can input that allows you to log on and remove the app)
Then again, I can usually tell within a few days if I am going to purchase an app. The person must have liked it if they actually went through the entire demo period.
Steve
__________________
"My eyes are rolling back in my head so far I can see my grey matter bubbling and frothing from reading this thread....bleh." JD
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02-02-2004, 10:24 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 246
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I've tried it, but my signature is too different each time I write it. I got a message when I calibrated it (by writing my signature three times) saying that it wouldn't be able to recognize my signature accuratly. Too bad, seems like a nice piece of software.
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Linear Mode
