Researchers Decode Messages By Analyzing Typing Sounds

Is it possible to transcribe what others are typing simply by the listening to the noise their keystrokes make?  According to Doug Tygar of the University of California, Berkeley, the answer is yes.  Tygar and his colleagues recorded 10 minutes worth of typing and were able to figure out what was being typed just by the sound.  Each keystroke has a different sound, which enabled researchers to create a computer program that decodes the sound. “Using statistical learning theory, the computer can categorize the sound of each key as it’s struck and develop a good first guess with an accuracy of 60 percent for characters, and 20 percent for words,” explains team member Li Zhuang also of U.C. Berkeley. “We then use spelling and grammar check to refine the result, which increased the accuracy to 70 percent and the word accuracy to 50 percent.”

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