Smart Webcam Cover: Exploring the Design of an Intelligent Webcam Cover to Improve Usability and Trust

Info about the Project

Laptop webcams can be covertly activated by malware and law enforcement agencies. Consequently, 59% percent of Americans manually cover their webcams to avoid being surveilled. However, manual covers are prone to human error–through a survey with 200 users, we found that over 60% occasionally forget to re-attach their cover after using their webcam. To address this problem, we developed Smart Webcam Cover (SWC): a thin film that covers the webcam by default, and automatically uncovers the webcam when its LED indicator is lit.
Faculty: 
Gregory D. Abowd, Sauvik Das
Students: 
Youngwook Do, Jung Wook Park, Yuxi Wu, Avinandan Basu, Dingtian Zhang