Time-bound Contextual Bio-ID Generation for Minimalist Wearables

Abstract

As wearable devices become increasingly miniaturized and powerful, a new opportunity arises for instant and dynamic device-to-device collaboration and human-to-device interaction. However, this progress presents a unique challenge: these minimalist wearables lack inherent mechanisms for real-time authentication, posing significant risks to data privacy and overall security. To address this, we introduce Proteus that realizes an innovative concept of time-bound contextual bio-IDs, which are generated from on-device sensor data and embedded into a common latent space. These bio-IDs act as a time-bound unique user identifier that can be used to identify the wearer in a certain context. Proteus enables dynamic and contextual device collaboration as well as robust human-to-device interaction. Our evaluations demonstrate the effectiveness of our method, particularly in the context of minimalist wearables.