Virtual reality (VR) headsets are enabling a wide range of newopportunities for the user. For example, in the near future usersmay be able to visit virtual shopping malls and virtually joininternational conferences. These and many other scenarios posenew questions with regards to privacy and security, in particularauthentication of users within the virtual environment. As a firststep towards seamless VR authentication, this paper investigatesthe direct transfer of well-established concepts (PIN, Androidunlock patterns) into VR. In a pilot study (N = 5) and a labstudy (N = 25), we adapted existing mechanisms and evaluatedtheir usability and security for VR. The results indicate thatboth PINs and patterns are well suited for authentication inVR. We found that the usability of both methods matched theperformance known from the physical world. In addition, theprivate visual channel makes authentication harder to observe; indicating that authentication in VR using traditional conceptsalready achieves a good balance in the trade-off between usabilityand security. The paper contributes to a better understanding ofauthentication within VR environments, by providing the firstinvestigation of established authentication methods within VR; and presents the base layer for the design of future authenticationschemes, which are used in VR environments only.    «

Virtual reality (VR) headsets are enabling a wide range of newopportunities for the user. For example, in the near future usersmay be able to visit virtual shopping malls and virtually joininternational conferences. These and many other scenarios posenew questions with regards to privacy and security, in particularauthentication of users within the virtual environment. As a firststep towards seamless VR authentication, this paper investigatesthe direct transfer of well-established concepts (PIN,...    »