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The researchers at Maryland-based firm Passfaces replaced Passwords with a grid of faces. To access the computer, users have to pick out pre-defined faces from a series of grids. The company says that this is easy to remember but impossible to guess.

'Part of the human brain has evolved specifically to remember and recognise faces,' said CEO Paul Barrett. 'While you have to make a conscious effort to memorise and recall passwords, the equivalent processes for faces are completely intuitive.

Barrett told New Scientist that the process of selecting five faces from five different grids of nine faces is roughly equivalent to a random seven-character password.

There is one drawback. It takes between five and 10 seconds on average to authenticate a person, which Barret accepted 'may be unacceptable for applications that require the user to re-authenticate several times a day'.

A demonstration of the system can be seen at www.passfaces.com.