Self-powered intelligent keyboard ought to provide a new layer of protection

"This clever keyboard changes the conventional way wherein a keyboard is used for records enter," said Zhong Lin Wang, a Regents professor inside the school of substances science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of era. "every punch of the keys produces a complicated electrical signal that may be recorded and analyzed."

traditional keyboards document while a keystroke makes a mechanical touch, indicating the press of a selected key. The sensible keyboard records every letter touched, but also captures facts approximately the quantity of force implemented to the important thing and the period of time between one keystroke and the following. Such typing style is particular to individuals, and so may want to provide a new biometric for securing computer systems from unauthorized use.

further to presenting a small electric current for registering the key presses, the brand new keyboard could also generate sufficient power to charge a small portable digital device or power a transmitter to make the keyboard wireless.

An impact called touch electrification generates modern-day while the consumer's fingertips contact a plastic cloth on which a layer of electrode cloth has been covered. Voltage is generated through the triboelectric and electrostatic induction consequences. the usage of the triboelectric effect, a small charge can be produced whenever substances are added into contact after which moved aside.

"Our pores and skin is dielectric and we've got electrostatic charges in our fingers," Wang noted. "anything we touch can emerge as charged."

whilst the self-powered feature should provide a comfort benefit and potentially eliminate the need for batteries in wireless keyboards, Wang believes the most important impact of the tool may be in supporting to comfortable computer systems through the usage of man or woman typing styles or habits as a biometric.

"This has the capability to be a brand new method for figuring out customers," he said. "With this machine, a compromised password would no longer permit a cyber-criminal onto the computer. The way every body types even some words is man or woman and specific."

to evaluate the authentication ability of the keyboard, the studies team asked 104 persons to type the word "touch" four times, and recorded the electrical styles produced. the use of sign evaluation techniques, they have been in a position to differentiate individual typing styles with low mistakes rates, Wang said.

in place of character mechanical keys as in traditional keyboards, Wang's smart keyboard is made up of vertically-stacked transparent film substances. Researchers start with a layer of polyethylene terephthalate between two layers of indium tin oxide (ITO) that form pinnacle and backside electrodes.

next, a layer of fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) is carried out onto the ITO floor to serve as an electrification layer that generates triboelectric fees when touched by means of fingertips. FEP nanowire arrays are fashioned on the uncovered FEP floor through reactive ion etching.

The keyboard's operation is primarily based on coupling between touch electrification and electrostatic induction, in preference to the traditional mechanical switching. while a finger contacts the FEP, price is transferred on the touch interface, injecting electrons from the pores and skin into the fabric and developing a wonderful price.

while the finger moves away, the bad costs on the FEP facet induces high quality expenses on the top electrode, and same amounts of bad fees on the bottom electrode. Consecutive keystrokes produce a periodic electrical field that drives reciprocating flows of electrons among the electrodes. though sooner or later dissipating, the prices stay on the FEP surface for an extended time period.

Wang believes the new smart keyboard might be competitive with existing keyboards, in both fee and sturdiness. the new device is primarily based on less expensive materials which might be extensively used within the electronics enterprise.

As part of the examine, his research institution evaluated the keyboard underneath tough situations, which includes software of moisture, dirt and oil. "you could pour espresso at the keyboard, and it'd now not be damaged," said Wang. "because it is primarily based on a sheet of plastic, beverages won't hurt it."