Web giant Google is researching to build a more secure hardware device which in future can be used to login to a computer or an online account, thus eliminating the need for a password.
Designed in the shape of rings that can be worn on fingers, these hardware devices will aid in logging in to a computer or online account. The search engine first revealed its plans to put an end to passwords in an academic paper published online in January.
The effort focused on having people plug a small USB key that provides their credentials into a computer.
The possibility of using special jewellery in a similar manner was mentioned in that paper. According to Google’s principal engineer, who specialises in security, Mayank Upadhyay at the RSA security conference in San Francisco last week, “Using personal hardware to log in would remove the dangers of people reusing passwords or writing them down.”