Hermes: Hands-Free Authentication In Physical Spaces

This paper presents Hermes, a hands-free authentication system that makes use of credentials stored on a users smartphone to authenticate them when they enter a physical space or the vicinity of a physical object. By combining Bluetooth LE and Kerberos, Hermes is a novel system that makes use of existing technology available in today's internet-connected devices. This makes a system like Hermes suitable for widespread adoption for a number of applications in kiosks, shared printers and access control systems.A prototype was developed to assess how such a system could improve interactions with connected objects and reduce the friction before a user can interact with the object. Based on our preliminary user studies and performance tests, we show a considerable improvement in the time required to authenticate via Hermes, as opposed to traditional authentication methods. We also evaluate the accuracy of Bluetooth LE for use in such a system.