1. Hollia's Avatar
    I'm new to the CB site, but relatively schooled in the Smartphone (BB) tech world. I feel silly for asking about this, but my search to find the answer on this site has not really returned what I'm looking for. Does anyone know if there is an app out there that will unlock (a password protected) phone?
    Ex: I hold the record button on either my phone or Bluetooth and activate my phone to unlock via saying my password as opposed to typing my password on the phone itself? This would be extremely useful while driving as trying to type while driving (in some states) is highly illegal (not to mention dangerous). I'm sorry if this question has already been answered in the past - I looked first - I swear!!
    05-09-10 05:57 PM
  2. kwkid's Avatar
    I'm new to the CB site, but relatively schooled in the Smartphone (BB) tech world. I feel silly for asking about this, but my search to find the answer on this site has not really returned what I'm looking for. Does anyone know if there is an app out there that will unlock (a password protected) phone?
    Ex: I hold the record button on either my phone or Bluetooth and activate my phone to unlock via saying my password as opposed to typing my password on the phone itself? This would be extremely useful while driving as trying to type while driving (in some states) is highly illegal (not to mention dangerous). I'm sorry if this question has already been answered in the past - I looked first - I swear!!
    I have never heard of such an app, and I don't believe it exists. I also believe it would compromise the security of the BlackBerry. One of the prime reasons BB has been so successful in the business world is it's outstanding security model. Anything that could potentially compromise that model would do a disservice to all the other BB's. The password is heavily encrypted. What you suggest would put a media file with a recording of the password where almost anyone could get to it.
    05-09-10 06:27 PM
  3. Hollia's Avatar
    The password is heavily encrypted. What you suggest would put a media file with a recording of the password where almost anyone could get to it.
    You bring up a very good point regarding security and BB's reputation for security. I don't mean to argue or disagree with you, but rather sincerely ask: How would a voice activated unlock app pose a security threat when there are apps available that reply to emails or sms texts via voice activation? If, and I'm not insinuating those apps are perfectly safe (because I honestly don't know), those apps are considered "safe" than how would those differ in functionality from unlocking a password via voice activation?
    05-09-10 08:10 PM
  4. Hollia's Avatar
    Just to clarify my original post: I meant press any key (not necessarily the record key) so that I can say my password each time I need to unlock the phone as opposed to typing it in each time. I don't know if my original post gave the impression that I suggested a recording of my password would be played at the press of a designated button - that's not what I meant to imply (that would be silly and effectively make password protection pointless). I tend to over-clarify sometimes - sorry!
    05-09-10 08:17 PM
  5. sandesh_vg's Avatar
    Never heard of any such app... But you can try what I do, and just unlock the phone before you start driving....

    Posted from my BlackBerry using BerryBlab
    05-10-10 08:01 AM
  6. Hollia's Avatar
    I unlock the phone before I start driving, then it "times out" after 10 mins. I wouldn't want to set the "time out" at more than 10 mins, though, in case I lose my phone.
    05-10-10 05:18 PM
  7. kwkid's Avatar
    You bring up a very good point regarding security and BB's reputation for security. I don't mean to argue or disagree with you, but rather sincerely ask: How would a voice activated unlock app pose a security threat when there are apps available that reply to emails or sms texts via voice activation? If, and I'm not insinuating those apps are perfectly safe (because I honestly don't know), those apps are considered "safe" than how would those differ in functionality from unlocking a password via voice activation?
    First let me say that there is no arguement or disagreement on these points. They are just an explanation as I understand them. If there were an app that did this and it was deemed secure by RIM I'd buy it in a minute and password protect my BB.

    OK, here is my understanding of how this couldn't work. And I'll use your analogy to reading/replying to emails. When you have an email read to you or you dictate a reply, the software is taking the interpretive speech and comparing them to a phonic dictionary or word dictionary. The same would be true with a spoken password. It would have to be interpreted to a known word or phrase and then passed to the password encryption for a pass/fail entry. And therein lies the issue, somewhere on the BB it would have to know what word it is looking for in order to pass it to the encryption program for entry.

    I could be all wrong here, and hopefully someone a lot smarter than me can chime in and let us both know. But with what little I do know, I can't see where this could ever be foolproof, not that any password program is 100% anyway. I fight the battle everyday with coming up with unique passwords that are at least 12 characters long, contain numbers, letters, and letters with capitals, and symbols, and haven't been used in the last 24 months. That is the IT policy that I live under and it is stringent and very strong. So I have to take security seriously unfortunately. So hopefully this causes some further discussion and viewpoints as I would love to see this app developed. Thanks for replying and I look forward to hearing more from you and others on this topic.
    05-10-10 07:42 PM
  8. Radius's Avatar
    OK, here is my understanding of how this couldn't work. And I'll use your analogy to reading/replying to emails. When you have an email read to you or you dictate a reply, the software is taking the interpretive speech and comparing them to a phonic dictionary or word dictionary. The same would be true with a spoken password. It would have to be interpreted to a known word or phrase and then passed to the password encryption for a pass/fail entry. And therein lies the issue, somewhere on the BB it would have to know what word it is looking for in order to pass it to the encryption program for entry.
    It doesn't work like this.

    First of all to do good speech recognition there would have to be some hardware added to process the signals coming into the phone. Meaning your voice. To set the password just speak something. It is then converted into a series of numbers for later use.

    The password can be anything, a word, a phrase, a burp, a dog barking. Doesn't really matter depending on how it's implemented.

    What it's really doing is comparing your voice and sequence of sounds to basically a set of numbers. It converts the sounds you make into another set of numbers for comparison. If you make the same sounds back in the same way the system unlocks. Change a word, pitch of your voice, speak too slowly or quickly and you could cause it to stay locked.

    That's one implementation anyhow. And some systems are pretty smart too, but you always see people who use them speaking clearly so they get it right.
    05-10-10 08:09 PM
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