Gallery: Could Color Wheels Make for Easier, More Secure Passwords?
Photo: Renee Verhoeven01high-res-colour-picker
Design student Renee Verhoeven has created a conceptual series of password tools that scrap letters and numbers in favor of personal, mnemonic codes.
Photo: Renee Verhoeven02colour-picker
Besides being easily hacked, alphabetical and numerical passwords are hard to remember.
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Instead, mnemonic devices include basic everyday memory tricks like acronyms and rhymes. Rather than relying on a string of letters and numbers, passwords could be sensory, and therefore more personal.
Photo: Renee Verhoeven04pass2
Verhoeven's ID Protocol series (done for her graduate project for the Royal Collage of Arts in London) is early in the concept phase.
Photo: Renee Verhoeven05pass5
If it were a reality, it would consist of a user choosing one of the ID Protocol passes. The card-like device plugs into a computer with a USB stick.
Photo: Renee Verhoeven06high-res-valley
The user then creates a code with a physical interface that can be reconfigured in nearly infinite ways. Rather than choose a jumbled chain of letters, users can pick a color code (the Color Picker wheel lets you pick a pattern of three hues, and works like an old school combination lock) or arrange preset characters to tell a story.
Photo: Renee Verhoeven07password-valley
Android and the iPhone 5 give users options for passwords, like patterns and fingerprints. Verhoeven points out, however, that biometric security systems don’t allow users to get new passwords.
Photo: Renee Verhoeven08white-valley
Verhoeven plans to continue work on ID Protocol. Her goal is give users more agency: "I want people to choose their own system. Companies decide for you that you have to use their log in. Maybe you prefer color, maybe your prefer sound, or gesture."
