Augmented Reality, Computer Security, and Privacy

Augmented reality (AR) technologies -- which overlay digitally generated information on a user's perception of the real world -- are at the cusp of commercial viability, appearing in platforms like Google Glass, Microsoft HoloLens, and automotive windshields. Though these technologies bring great potential benefits, they also raise new and serious computer security and privacy risks. These risks arise for both AR input (due to the need for applications to continuously receive and process sensor data, posing privacy risks to users and bystanders) and for AR output (in which application may, for instance, overlay distracting content on a user's view of the real world).

The University of Washington Security and Privacy Research Lab, in collaboration with others, was among the first to raise these issues for emerging AR and other continuous sensing technologies, and our ongoing research aims to address them.

This work is supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Awards CNS-1513584 and CNS-1651230.