Asserting User Identity in Pervasive Computing Environments Using a Non-Intrusive Technique

Pervasive computing environments are exciting new vision of the new computing era due to the recent wide advances in wireless communication and digital electronics. These environments are small smart worlds that have many advantages such as the continuous and distributed interaction with people using a variety of wireless devices (such as mobile phones and PDAs), which are ubiquitous but provide useful services. In Pervasive Environments, it is important to establish the identity of a user interacting with that environment, in order to provide the user with the required services by the environment. The user identity information is used by the system in such environments to retrieve a variety of context information, which is necessary for providing the required services. Due to the characteristics of pervasive computing environments there is a challenge in asserting the user’s identity. In such environments, it would be impractical for users to prove their identities (through authentication) every time they cross or move among various networks. This research aims to provide an approach for verifying the user identity when interacting within a smart environment. In doing so, we aim to develop a new non-intrusive and adaptable technique for asserting the user identity. The proposed system called NonIntrusive Assertion System (NIAS) would be aware of the user’s intention and behaviour while attempting to verify their identity and maintaining confidence on the identity of the user. NIAS will have the ability to detect user's events by monitoring user’s who carry an identification device such as a smart tag. The system then uses these events in order to infer the user’s behaviour, from which the user identity can be asserted. The system should be able to cope with various situations, such as user’s losing their smart tags or people impersonating others. By implementing this system, we can tackle the intrusive nature of the periodic (repeated) users' authentication process and minimize the risk of false identities in pervasive computing environments.