This Doormat Can Tell Who You Are for Multi-Factor Authentication

Multi-factor authentication is any method of secure login that requires you to use more than one credential to prove who are you. Single-factor authentication would be just a single password. Two-factor authentication might be a password plus a verification code sent to your cell phone number. Multi-factor authentication is dramatically more secure, because it is very unlikely that a black hat hacker would have access to both your password and something like your cell phone. CapMat is a unique doormat that can sense who a person is in order to add another layer of authentication.

Two-factor authentication may be more secure than single-factor, but that doesn’t mean it’s foolproof. The more layers of authentication you add, the more secure the system is. Of course that quickly becomes very inconvenient if you’re having to deal with all of those authentication methods manually — and there is nothing people hate more than inconvenience. That’s why, in an ideal world, security systems would automatically check multiple layers of authentication without you having to do anything. CapMat is designed to facilitate that.

CapMat is a capacitive sensor with the size and shape of a typical doormat. When a person stands on CapMat, it can measure their shoe form factor and weight. Those are dependent on the shoes’ wear and how the person stands, which makes it difficult for an unauthorized user to replicate. By simply standing on the mat while they enter a code or swipe and RFID card, users can perform a second layer of authentication. In testing, CapMat was able to detect 15 individual users with an accuracy of up to 100%.