Google actually showcased Abacus at Google I/O past year, and TechCrunch reports that the company hasn’t forgotten about the technology at all.
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First previewed during last year’s I/O developer conference, Project Abacus is Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group’s ambitious plan to eliminate passwords.
Kaufman said: “We have a phone, and these phones have all these sensors in them”. Abacus would use these things together to confirm your identify, instead of you needing to input your password. The concept is that users would be able to unlock devices or sign into apps based on a “Trust Score” derived from their usage patterns. The company is already using some of the technology such as in the case of “Smart Lock” which automatically unlocks the user’s device when in a secure location.
Trust API monitors how users operate their phones and builds a profile based on numerous factors to determine if a device is in the right hands.
Called ‘Trust API, ‘ the system is the latest development to come from Project Abacus, a biometric authentication program that was unveiled past year.
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CNNMoney contacted a number of large banks to ask whether they were working with Google on its “Trust API” project. The score is calculated by taking into account multiple factors, like typing patterns, location, speed, voice patterns, and even facial recognition. Financial apps would require a very high Trust Score, while games and such wouldn’t be as stringent. If the testing goes well, Google will then release the API to Android developers before the close of 2016, meaning we could be using this kind of technology as early as Q4 2016. It keeps track of its sensors and data to keep providing apps with trust scores. Seeing as it’s not quite sure that you are who you say you are. “This was Deepak Chandra’s vision to get rid of passwords”, Daniel Kaufman, head of ATAP, said at Google I/O.
