Flight Time
Definition
The interval between the key-up event of one key and the key-down event of the next key in a keystroke sequence. Also called inter-key interval. A primary feature in keystroke-dynamics classifiers.
- Also called
- Inter-key interval
- Measured between
- Key-up of one key and key-down of the next
- Domain
- Keystroke dynamics
- Use
- Primary feature in behavioural biometric classifiers
Common questions
How does flight time differ from dwell time in keystroke dynamics?+
Flight time measures the gap between releasing one key and pressing the next, capturing transition speed across the keyboard, while dwell time measures how long a single key is held down. Classifiers typically combine both because they capture different aspects of typing rhythm.
Why is flight time useful for continuous authentication rather than a one-time login check?+
Because it can be measured passively from ordinary typing during a session, flight time lets a system verify identity continuously in the background, flagging a shift in rhythm that might indicate the original user has been replaced at the keyboard, without requiring a repeated explicit login.
Related terms
- Continuous Authentication
- An authentication approach that verifies user identity throughout an active session rather than only at login, using passively collected behavioural signals to...
- Covariate Problem
- In forensic gait analysis and computer-vision gait recognition, the degradation in accuracy caused by variations in viewpoint, clothing, footwear, walking speed, surface,...
- Dwell Time
- The period between an attacker gaining initial access and their detection. Reducing dwell time is a primary goal of threat hunting. The...
- ENFSI ENGAGE
- The European Network of Forensic Science Institutes' Gait Analysis across Europe project (2013-2015), which produced the principal best-practice manual for forensic gait...
- Equal Error Rate (EER)
- The point on a classifier's detection error tradeoff curve where the false accept rate equals the false reject rate. Lower EER indicates...
- Forensic Gait Analysis
- The comparison of an unknown person's gait as captured on CCTV or other footage against reference gait footage of a known individual,...
- Free-Text Keystroke Dynamics
- Keystroke analysis applied to arbitrary typed content rather than a fixed password or passphrase. Forensically more relevant than fixed-text verification but substantially...
- Mouse Dynamics
- The statistical characteristics of cursor movement patterns, including velocity, acceleration, path curvature, jitter, and click timing, used as a continuous behavioural authentication...
- Touch Dynamics
- The equivalent of mouse dynamics on touchscreen devices: swipe velocity, tap pressure distribution, finger contact area, and lift-off deceleration, used in mobile...