Passwords are hard. They can be long, they can be short and they can be filled with numbers, symbols and errant capitalizations. When you add multiple services into the mix, each demanding their own unique password, memorization becomes impossible. Worse yet, if a service is compromised, passwords can become useless.

For those reasons, the security industry is searching for a new solution. It won’t be easy: a replacement will need to offer better security and control over our online accounts than passwords, while still being an easy form of verification. Many frantic security researchers are chasing this unicorn.

They are closing in. There are a few possible leads for our next generation of security.

Let’s take a look at a few of them now:

Your Veins

The veins in your hand are wonderful contenders for a new form of verification. PalmSecure, a Fujitsu product based on biometric verification (where an element of your body is used to verify your identity), uses near-infrared light to study and read the vein patterns in your palm. The end result is a technique more accurate than fingerprint readers, according to livescience.com, with same amount of convenience.

Password Pills

While they may be a ways off, pills could be a great way to make you the password. Former Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) members, now working at Motorola, have crafted a pill that, when digested, emits an 18-bit signal, turning your body into an authentication token.

Geographic Passwords

Geographic passwords use an area on a map in lieu of a password. The reasoning here, according to Net Security, is that it’s easier to recall a special place — say, where your favorite coffee stand is — than it is to memorize a password, and far more unique, too.

Security Tattoos

Another unique solution is to get your password tattooed onto you. The same researchers from Motorola also developed a digital tattoo that can be pasted onto an arm or a hand. The tattoo, which contains sensors and an antenna, could then be used for authentication.

Inkblots

Rather than ditch passwords entirely, Carnegie Mellon University scientists opted for an extra measure dubbed “GOTCHA.” The technique has you generate several phrases for inkblots. An inkblot challenge, along with a list of your phrases, will pop up when you try to log in. Select the corresponding phrase, and you’re good to go.

This solution would help keep hackers out of sensitive accounts, like medical records, because it requires both human interaction and personal interpretation — both impossible for the programs employed by hackers to create.

Brainwaves

Finally, there could come a time when mere thought is enough to verify your identity. By measuring your brain activity after completing several tasks (through an instrument as innocuous as a headset), users may be able to log in and verify their identities by completing customized tasks and remembering personal secrets.

Will ever we be rid of the password?

We’ll have to use passwords for some time, but that doesn’t mean we should stop looking for a better, more suitable replacement. A replacement for the password will need to offer us better security and control over our online accounts while being an easy form of verification. We’re close to realizing a multitude of solutions — provided we can standardize them for consumers everywhere.

At Intel Security, we’re looking toward the future, and have tried to find the perfect balance between Jetson-like technology and everyday-usability, which is why we made True Key™ by Intel Security.

The True Key app is changing the way the world logs in. It takes your current passwords and makes them stronger, remembers them and instantly logs you in — so you don’t have too. And if you want to add extra layers of protection to your accounts, you can. You can customize which sites need more security — like your banking and add things unique about you, like your face, a fingerprint and device you can add one or all with the click of a button.