DEVICE AUTHENTICATION USING DISPLAY DEVICE IRREGULARITY

摘要

A device authentication server authenticates a remotely located device using data representing pixel irregularities of a display of the device. Since each display will deteriorate in a unique and randomized way, a unique mapping of pixel irregularities of a display of a device will be unique. By combining unique map of pixel irregularities of a display of the remotely located device, the device can be distinguished from similar devices when other attributes alone are insufficient to uniquely identify the device.

主权项

1. A method for identifying a remotely located device, the method comprising:
receiving device identification data from the device, wherein the device identification data includes:
a device identifier, wherein the device identifier is a unique identifier of one of a number of known devices; andpixel irregularity data, wherein the pixel irregularity represents one or more pixel irregularities of at least one monitor of the device and wherein the pixel irregularity data is derived by the remotely located device by, for each of one or more pixels of a display of the remotely located device: (i) writing test data to the pixel, (ii) reading display data from the pixel, wherein the display data specifies a color currently displayed for the pixel, and (iii) comparing the test data to the display data to identify an irregularity of the pixel; determining that the device identifier identifies the device; comparing the pixel irregularity data to corresponding reference pixel irregularity data previously stored for the device; and authenticating the device as a recognized device upon determining that the pixel irregularity data is consistent with the corresponding reference pixel irregularity data if the pixel irregularity data does not indicate less pixel irregularity than the reference pixel irregularity data.