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I've always wanted some cool way to log into Windows like inserting a designated USB or voice recognition. For example there's Blink (pictured bellow) which uses facial recognition to log into your PC.

What alternative ways are there to log into your PC?

Too bad holding up a picture of the person will grant you access

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3 Answers

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Well there are the fingerprint readers built into most new laptops.

You can even buy USB readers for laptops or desktops that don't have one.

If that isn't futuristic enough you can get an iris recognition camera. Here's one built into a mouse

This page mentions signature recognition:

the Penflow client-server application which allows easy and secure signature authentication process

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It's fun that all those systems try to use biometrics (which is an identification trait)—or other things that identify but not authenticate you—as an authentication token. Cf. Schneier: »Biometrics are unique identifiers, but they are not secrets«. As for me, I didn't even install the driver for the fingerprint reader ;-) – Joey May 10 '10 at 14:13
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You can also use a USB Flash Drive as logon replacement.

Most such products are commercial.
A free product is Blue Micro USB Flash Drive Logon:

The Blue Micro USB Flash Drive Logon turns your existing pendrive or flash drive into a key to logon to your pc. This makes it easier for users to manage their windows account passwords. This software creates a encrypted code on your pendrive, only understood by this software. This software can be installed on Windows XP and 2000 only. This software can be downloaded for free. You would have to register and log into our website in order to download it.

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Does this thing work if computer is a member of a domain? – Jawa May 10 '10 at 15:17
@Jawa: Such tools are used by large companies for secure logon in domains. As regarding the above mentioned product, I don't know. You will have to try it and see (carefully). – harrymc May 10 '10 at 19:02
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There are some methods to do automated login using the Bluetooth connection to your phone. Unfortunately, after evaluating about 8 solutions, all of them (without exception) were buggy and didn't work well. Seems odd, as the script to do this is only about 8 lines of code. Market opportunity, anyone?

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