Dynamic Inertial Sensing for Device Identification

Previous studies have demonstrated that inherent imperfections in inertial sensors can serve as unique identifiers for devices, supporting secure key generation and device authentication. However, these works have primarily focused on measurements taken under static conditions, where sensors were at rest. This paper extends that line of research by investigating inertial sensor-based device identification under dynamic conditions. Specifically, when devices are in motion within a vehicle. We demonstrate that despite motion-induced variations, consistent inter-sensor relationships can be exploited to accurately identify individual devices. Furthermore, we present an ICMetric key generation approach that leverages accelerometer and gyroscope differential readings, using derived alignment and granularity parameters to dynamically regenerate cryptographic keys without storing them. Using five Raspberry Pi 5 devices, each with four MPU-9250 sensors, our experiments demonstrate effective device identification and assess the resilience of motion-regenerated ICMetric-based keys to brute-force attacks.