Sonic-Hash

A melodic Sonification of password field input

Sonic-Hash is a jQuery plugin that composes a pentatonic or octatonic melody for secure text-field values

Password entry can be frustrating, especially with long or difficult passwords. On a webpage, secure fields obscure your input with •'s, so others can't read it. Unfortunately, neither can you—you can't tell if you got your password right until you click "Log In".

Sonic-Hash attempts to solve this problem using subtle audible cues. After you finish typing your password, Sonic-Hash will take it, and construct a musical representation of it. In a registration flow where you have to enter their password twice, you can easily tell if they match by comparing the first melody to the second. Or, every time you log in, your trusty password will generate the same distinctive melody. You'll know if you messed up if you hear an unfamiliar tune.

Demo

Melodies speak louder than words. Try it out at: http://mattt.github.com/Sonic-Hash/

Note: Requires browser with support for HTML5 <audio>, such as Safari 4, Firefox 3.5, or Chrome

Usage

$("input:password").sonicHash({notes: 4, minimum: 6, salt: "7be82b35cb0199120eea35a4507c9acf", scale: "pentatonic"});

• notes: number of notes to be played each time
• minimum: minimum number of characters; otherwise, an alert sound plays
• salt: value to be appended when calculating hash function
• scale: choose notes using a pentatonic or octatonic scale

Requirements

• jQuery 1.3+

Credit

Sonic-Hash uses Paul Johnston's Javascript MD5 implementation, and is distributed under the BSD License
See http://pajhome.org.uk/crypt/md5 for more info

Javascript client-side WAV generation based on code by sk89q
See http://sk89q.therisenrealm.com/ for more info

Thanks to Christian Crumlish for suggesting the use of sound for password identification.

Contact

Mattt Thompson

• http://github.com/mattt
• http://twitter.com/mattt
• m@mattt.me

License

Sonic-Hash is available under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for more info.