<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">This is an updated reminder about Yuxin Chen’s MS Presentation today. <div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">(The earlier announcement contained some weird symbols, which have been corrected below.)</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Here is the Zoom link to participate:<br class=""><a href="https://uchicago.zoom.us/j/99691356074" class="">https://uchicago.zoom.us/j/99691356074</a><br class=""><br class="">------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br class="">Date: Monday, May 18, 2020<br class=""><br class="">Time: 2:00 PM<br class=""><br class="">Place: remote via Zoom<br class=""><br class="">M.S. Candidate: Yuxin Chen<br class=""><br class="">M.S. Paper Title: Wearable Microphone Jamming<br class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Abstract:</div><div class="">We engineered a wearable microphone jammer that is capable of</div><div class="">disabling microphones in its user's surroundings, including hidden</div><div class="">microphones. Our device is based on a recent exploit that leverages</div><div class="">the fact that when exposed to ultrasonic noise, commodity microphones</div><div class="">will leak the noise into the audible range.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Unfortunately, ultrasonic jammers are built from multiple transducers</div><div class="">and therefore exhibit blind spots, i.e., locations in which</div><div class="">transducers destructively interfere and where a microphone cannot be</div><div class="">jammed. To solve this, our device exploits a synergy between</div><div class="">ultrasonic jamming and the naturally occurring movements that users</div><div class="">induce on their wearable devices (e.g., bracelets) as they gesture or</div><div class="">walk. We demonstrate that these movements can blur jamming blind spots</div><div class="">and increase jamming coverage. Moreover, current jammers are also</div><div class="">directional, requiring users to point the jammer to a microphone;</div><div class="">instead, our wearable bracelet is built in a ring-layout that allows</div><div class="">it to jam in multiple directions. This is beneficial in that it</div><div class="">allows our jammer to protect against microphones hidden out of sight.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">We evaluated our jammer in a series of experiments and found that: (1)</div><div class="">it jams in all directions, e.g., our device jams over 87% of the words</div><div class="">uttered around it in any direction, while existing devices jam only</div><div class="">30% when not pointed directly at the microphone; (2) it exhibits</div><div class="">significantly less blind spots; and, (3) our device induced a</div><div class="">feeling of privacy to participants of our user study. We believe our</div><div class="">wearable provides stronger privacy in a world in which most devices</div><div class="">are constantly eavesdropping on our conversations.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Yuxin's advisors are Prof. Ben Zhao and Prof. Heather Zheng<br class=""><br class="">Login to the Computer Science Department website for details:<br class=""><a href="https://newtraell.cs.uchicago.edu/phd/ms_announcements#yxchen" class="">https://newtraell.cs.uchicago.edu/phd/ms_announcements#yxchen</a></div><div class=""><br class=""><div class="">
<div>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<br class="">Margaret P. Jaffey<br class="">Student Affairs Administrator<br class=""> for the PhD program<br class="">Department of Computer Science<br class="">The University of Chicago<br class="">John Crerar Library, Room 350<br class="">5730 S. Ellis Ave.<br class=""><br class="">773-702-6011<br class="">=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=</div>
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