An add-on that can be downloaded from our old friend The Net, which, when installed, allows your login/internet access password to be something like 'drag the window upwards then right click on the title bar'. The window itself still has a password prompt and looks exactly the same as your run-of-the-mill password entering thingy.
-- modular, Oct 29 2003

IGesture / FingerWorks http://www.pcworld....0,aid,105812,00.asp
Sorta close. "For example, to open a file users rotate their hand as if opening a jar, and to maximize or minimize a screen users expand or contract their hand....could eventually allow users to gesture passwords known only to them." [krelnik, Oct 04 2004]

This is definitely bakeable on Windows, there is an API that allows third parties to replace the login prompt, usually with some biometric widget. I've seen several research authentication systems that used either a series of icons on which you would click, or a picture of many items which you would click four or five points on, as an alternative to a password.
-- krelnik, Oct 29 2003


Right now, it's pretty easy to guess passwords from girl/boyfriend, pet and family names/DOBs. If we allow users to gesture at their computers, I think we can all guess what gesture they will all use...
-- DrCurry, Oct 29 2003


I dunno [DrCurry]. You usually require a particularly detailed knowledge of football through the ages in Dundee to guess any of my passwords.

(So detailed infact, that I can safely leave clues like this randomly on the internet)
-- never trust a man in a blue trench coat, Oct 29 2003


trench coat: your passwords may be beyond reproach, I'm referring to the broad mass of unwashed users outside the technology department.
-- DrCurry, Oct 30 2003


// (So detailed infact, that I can safely leave clues like this randomly on the internet) //

Oh hordes of hackers around the world, make this person eat these words!
-- PauloSargaco, Oct 30 2003


In one of Samuel Delaney's books, the password required to answer your phone consisted of thinking of the smell of burned plastic, followed by imagining hearing your sister's voice saying the word seven, followed by some other memory you'd not normally associate with. I could see this being the way of the future as all the usernames and passwords get used up.
-- normzone, Oct 30 2003


[normzone] - if we've reached the point that a phone can detect your thoughts, clearly the evil password stealer in the corner with the parabolic brainwave dish can too.
-- benjamin, Oct 30 2003



random, halfbakery