Fact Sheet
First application to use this new process: Secret Stuff application for the iPhone / iPad
First date technology was publicly available: May 18, 2011
Time to design / develop / test / release: About an hour a day for 2 months in 2010
Competition at time of release: None. This was released before Android had their version and Microsoft for Windows 8.
The Problem to Solve
In the digital age, there are so many passwords and user names to remember. Passwords are getting more complex as well. Many institutions have web pages that ask multiple questions to authenticate you. More questions means more answers to remember. Not only that, how many different user names do you have to remember and remember per website / application? With all that, how can you truly remember a set of numbers and letters for all these webpages, devices, work accounts, without forgetting once in a while? Sounds like a lot to keep in track in my your mind. Is there an easier way to remember?
The Components
Your subconscious!
Use your cognitive mind to help you automatically remember your password
Photos / images / pictures
When you see a picture from a vacation, you recall a lot of information about it. The time, the place, the people, the event, etc... You don't need to think too hard to remember the key aspects of the picture
A picture is worth a thousand words! In this case, bits and bytes!
The iPhone allows for drawing on the screen
Why replicate a keypad to get input? Why not use what's most important on the iPhone? The ability to draw on the screen
The Idea
Let a user pick his / her own picture
Since it's his / her own picture, he / she already has a link from their memory subconsciously
Visual cues helps a person remember the picture and what's it for
Let the user draw a line on his / her picture
A line on a screen has infinite combinations
The line is only associated to that picture. As long as it's not a random squiggle, the user should be able to easily remember what he / she drew
No one else would ever think about drawing the same line as you did (as long as it's not too simple ;)
The picture is personal, the line is personal
So by association, a person should be able to easily recall the line he / she drew once they saw their unlock / login picture
Drawing / Picture Key in Action
Is this the Future?
Maybe, maybe not.
Do you need a username and password to identify you to your friends? No. Why? Because they recognize you visually.
Do you need a username and password to identify you over the phone? Not really. Why? Voice recognition.
What else is unique about you? Finger prints!
So the future to security is to use those three traits. That way you don't need to remember anything else. Just be yourself.
At time of writing this webpage, Apple already has a patent for facial recognition to unlock a device.
There's lots of software out there for voice recognition
Fingerprint recognition hardware and software is becoming more compact and available
One day, all of that will be available on a mobile / smart device.
One day, you won't need to remember any username or passwords :)