“The secret, in this sense the hiding of realities by negative or positive means, is one of man’s greatest achievements.”
Georg Simmel

ShakeOnIt uses a fundamental social ritual – the handshake – as an interface for a new form of interactive device. The interface juxtaposes an open and public gesture with security and secrecy, bolstering the supposition that secrets are best hidden in plain view.

There are several types of interfaces that could illustrate the theme that codes can be embedded and activated digitally in quotidian objects, though the prototype we built focuses specifically on the handshake. Doorknobs, jewelry and physical keys were also explored.

Conceptually, the project has four separate themes:

1. Information Hidden In Plain Sight: Using familiar objects and gestures as mediums for the storage and transfer of sensitive information. Security companies grapple constantly with how to make information more “secure” – we posit that embedding this information in everyday gestures and objects and then using the objects themselves as the interface is compelling because it is extremely difficult to differentiate between the gesture itself and the actual transfer of hidden information.

2. Leveraging Social Codes and Norms for Security Purposes: An extension of the hidden in plain sight theme, we also explored the idea that socializing a code could actually serve to make it more secure by bringing others into the process. Especially when it’s the secrets of a group – whether official or informal – having the security as socially constricted creates a way for people to check one another.

3. Interactive, Dynamic and Hypercustomized Security: This project also takes the idea of security, which normally exists in relatively static forms (home security systems, padlocks, etc.) and making the form factor itself interactive.

4. Gestural Security – Utilizing Physically Intuitive Gestures: With many types of security interfaces, you must learn how to physically interact with the device. This project explores interactions and gestures that are already physically intuitive. We are presenting the idea that you can encode hidden information into everyday gestures and rituals – making them inseparable and therefore indistinguishable.

To read our entire paper, click here.

As a way to explore physical manifestations of these four themes, we built a prototype for ShakeOnIt using Polartec Polyester gloves re-sewed with conductive fabric and a Lilypad Arduino. The gloves are sensitive to nine specific gestures that represent familiar handshake movements and a certain sequence of gestures will activate or “grant access” if performed by the two participants correctly.

The nine gestures are:

Upon successful completion of the right combination of gestures, access is granted.

Although the prototype that we built revolved around a handshake and interactive interpersonal gestures, there are three other tangible manifestations that were discussed:

1. Decoder Ring – Building the code-breaking device into a ring equipped with an accelerometer allows the project to be built in a way that preserves the individuality of security while still tackling the idea that security devices can be hidden in plain sight and incorporated into everyday objects.

2. Braille Doorknob – Hide messaging in Braille on the back of a doorknob that gives the user clues on how to open the door.

3. Advanced Skeleton Key – A key hiding inside a key is another way to examine interactive security. The key has Braille dots (numbered 1-8) on a rotating circular handle that works somewhat like a combination lock and activates the key by pushing out different “teeth” combinations with different numbers. In this examine, the doorplate of the door tells the user how to use the key – making not only an interaction between the user and the key/door handle, but between the key and the door handle themselves.