Max T. Curran

Max T. Curran

PhD candidate at the UC Berkeley School of Information

Posts by Collection

portfolio

HCI in Virtual Reality

User research for a virtual reality experience to encourage sustainable behavior (Spring 2017)

TrackStream

A web app and API to stream music from your favorite movies and TV shows. (Fall 2016)

How Many Fish?

A visualization to interrogate the workings of an online dating algorithm. (Spring 2016)

SenseShare

Investigating the social sharing of biosignals via prototype probes. (Spring 2016)

PIPPOP

Interface developed for an app to simplify and improve the exchange of contact information. (Fall 2015)

publications

Passthoughts Authentication with Low Cost EarEEG

Published in 38th Annnual Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC 2016), 2016

Abstract

Personal and wearable computing are moving toward smaller and more seamless devices. We explore how this trend could be mirrored in an authentication scheme based on electroencephalography (EEG) signals collected from the ear. We evaluate this model using a low cost, single-channel, consumer grade device for data collection. Using data from 12 study participants who performed a set of 5 mental tasks, we achieve a 44% reduction in half total error rate (HTER) compared with a random classifier, corresponding to a 72% authentication accuracy in within-participants analyses and a 60% reduction and 80% accuracy in between-participant analyses. Given our results and those of previous research, we conclude that earEEG shows potential as a uniquely convenient authentication method as it is integrable into devices like earbud headphones already commonly worn in the ear, and the mental gestures generating the signal are invisible to would-be eavesdroppers.

Recommended citation: Curran, M.T., Yang, J., Merrill, N., Chuang, J. (2016). "Passthoughts Authentication with Low Cost EarEEG." Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC 2016). http://biosense.berkeley.edu/projects/ear-eeg/assets/EMBC2016.pdf

talks

Talk 1 on Relevant Topic in Your Field

Published in University 1, Department, 2012

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Tutorial 1 on Relevant Topic in Your Field

Published in University 1, Department, 2013

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Talk 2 on Relevant Topic in Your Field

Published in University 1, Department, 2014

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Conference Proceeding talk 3 on Relevant Topic in Your Field

Published in University 1, Department, 2014

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teaching

Teaching experience 1

Published in University 1, Department, 2014

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Teaching experience 2

Published in University 1, Department, 2015

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