Patent ID: 7984064

Claim:
A method, performed by a user, of gaining access to at least one computing device, the method comprising acts of: (A) gaining access to the at least one computing device at a first time by providing credential information to the at least one computing device to authenticate the user's identity to the at least one computing device; (B) gaining access to the at least one computing device at a second time, subsequent to the first time, by presenting a passive proximity badge to the first user interface or a different user interface of the at least one computing device without providing the credential information to authenticate the user's identity to the at least one computing device at the second time, wherein the second time is subsequent to the first time by a period of time that is less than a grace period established by the at least one computing device to enable the user to regain access to the at least one computing device without providing the credential information to authenticate the user's identity to the at least one computing device; and (C) gaining access to the at least one computing device at a third time that is subsequent to the second time by greater than the grace period by providing the credential information to the at least one computing device to authenticate the user's identity to the at least one computing device.