British technology firm Intelligent Environments has launched the world’s first emoji-only passcode, letting people log into their banks using four emoji characters, instead of traditional PINs or passwords.
Emoji Passcode for banking is more secure than a four digit pin, says the company.
With 44 emoji to pick from there’s over 3 million permutations, as opposed to just over 7,000 for traditional pins. That’s 480 times more permutations added to your security.
As example of how a user remembers an emoji only password, they could start with a baby’s face, as they start your day, followed by a bike for thier commute, apple for lunch and beer for evening.
The system also prevents hackers from identifying common and easily obtainable numerical passcodes, like a date of birth or a wedding anniversary.
Research shows that emoji are also easier to remember than traditional passcodes, as humans remember pictures better than words.
“The Emoji Passcode plays to humans’ extraordinary ability to remember pictures, which is anchored in our evolutionary history,” said memory expert Tony Buzan, inventor of the Mind Map technique.
“We remember more information when it’s in pictorial form, that’s why the Emoji Passcode is better than traditional PINs.”
Intelligent Environments is currently in discussion with banks that are considering rolling the technology out to their customers within the next 12 months.
Intelligent Environments launched the feature in response to a recent survey of 1,337 UK adults, which showed that nearly a third of Britons have forgotten their PINs, and one in four use the same PIN for all their cards.
The world's first Emoji passcode from Intelligent Environments on Vimeo.