Patent ID: 8719922

Claim:
A method for securing a device against unauthorized use, the method comprising: storing a sensory association passcode on a device, the sensory association passcode having encoded therein frame combinations, each frame combination containing a visual item in combination with one or both of a sound clip and a tactile pattern from which a user is to create a sensory association between the visual item, sound clip and tactile pattern to aid in the user's later recall of the frame combination, the content of each frame combination having been user-selected via a user interface; responsive to a request to unlock a device, displaying a selection of frame on the user interface, the selection including matching frame combinations that match the frame encoded in the sensory association passcode and non-matching frame that do not match the frame encoded in the sensory association passcode; responsive to a selection of one of the frame displayed on the user interface, displaying the visual item along with at least one of sounding the sound clip and generating the tactile pattern, the visual item, sound clip and tactile pattern being contained in the selected one of the frame combinations; receiving a user input via the user interface indicating which of the selection of frame to use to unlock the device; comparing the user-indicated frame combination to the frame encoded in the sensory association passcode; and unlocking the device when the user-indicated frame combination is one of the matching frame combinations.