Patent ID: 9690929
Date: 2017-06-27
CPC Classifications: G06F

Claim:
1. A computer-implemented method for estimating a strength of a proposed graphical password comprising a first segment and a second segment, the method comprising: (a) a hardware processor obtaining the proposed graphical password, wherein the proposed graphical password was created by a user interacting with a touch-screen of a mobile communication device, and applying a first geometric operation on the first segment of the proposed graphical password, wherein the first segment consists of a first set of two or more points (P (b) the hardware processor performing a comparison operation between 1) the first transformed segment that was generated by applying the geometric operation on the first segment of the proposed graphical password and 2) the second segment of the proposed graphical password, wherein the second segment of the proposed graphical password is separate and distinct from the first segment of the proposed graphical password; (c) based on an outcome of the comparison operation, the processor hardware performing a penalty operation with respect to the first segment, wherein the step of performing the penalty operation comprises one or more of: (c1) the hardware processor calculating a penalty value, wherein the penalty value is used in calculating a value representing the strength of the proposed graphical password; and (c2) the hardware processor disregarding the first or the second segment when calculating the value representing the strength of the proposed graphical password, wherein the step of applying the first geometric operation on the first segment of the proposed graphical password comprises the processor rotating the first segment of the proposed graphical password around a first point by X degrees, where X>0 and X<360 degrees.