Graphical Passwords

This is an interesting new take on user authentication, and works something like this:

1. You create a graphical password by choosing a small subset of the pass-icons in the system.
2. The authentication screen shows a random grid of icons, with at least 3 of them being ones that are part of your password.
3. You need to find at least 3 of your chosen icons, and click inside the imaginary area (the convex hull) that is formed with your icons as the vertices.
4. The icons are shuffled and you repeat the process a preset number of times to minimize the chances of lucky guesses. If you have enough correct clicks you are authenticated.

Quite a novel concept. It could be useful in some places, but will probably be too cumbersome to use for all of your passwords.

• Link to simulation (via Digg)
• Help page describing how the system is used
• Update: in-depth paper on the system (via reddit)