Researchers from Zhejiang University and Darmstadt University of Technology have demonstrated the ability to control a smartphone in a contactless way. To do this, they designed a rather complex scheme.
Scientists have created an electrostatic installation that generates a pulsed signal and transmits it to an antenna, which creates a controlled electromagnetic field that simulates touching the touch screen of a smartphone.
The operation of this design is shown in the video: pressing on one smartphone was exactly duplicated on another, located at a distance of several centimeters from it.
The researchers note that this discovery could potentially be used as a hacker attack. Smartphone owners often place their devices face down in public places (for example, when having lunch in a cafe). An attacker, in theory, can quietly place equipment to control smartphones and try to perform certain actions on other people’s devices (for example, try to connect to Wi-Fi with “wiretapping” or unlock the screen and steal valuable data). To protect smartphones from this type of attack, manufacturers need to improve the algorithms for recognizing clicks, as well as provide screen shielding to protect against electromagnetic pulses.