Phone Interface with Laptop

[Troyski]

So this morning, I was typing in my long password into my work laptop, reading from my phone's screen, and I thought, "wouldn't it be good if I could just hold up my phone to the laptop and send the password?"

Neither has RFID/NFC so that's not going to happen, unless I could somehow use the phone's camera flash to send data to the laptop's webcam. I could "flash my data" over - maybe so quick my human eye wouldn't see anything but a brief flash.

Maybe I could use this to unlock my laptop too.

The flash could be encrypted in case of interception.

Yes, I know there's Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and there even used to be infrared. But in a corporate environment these are generally not available or permitted.

This would provide another choice. I like choices.

Not sure if this is even physically possible or practical, but here it is. My first idea.

Reward: Yes, the kudos knowing my idea amounted to something would be great, but a free app would be nice too.

[Zerfox]

So I thought this was a great idea and tought of making this!
You could scanQR-codes with your mobile phone which are provided by the computer you want to log on.

Sadly this seems to be patented..

[Grant]

Perhaps designing an application which could be used with smartphones running Android, iOS of which would display the phones screen on your computer screen (just like the iPhone's mirror display), at convenience you could browse your phone (passwords) on the same screen.. Just a thought. I have application programming knowledge so if you're in a serious position to take this further, please feel free to get in contact.
- Grant

[majenko]

Instead of using your flash, why not consider audio?

A short burst of noise that could be picked up by the laptop's built-in microphone. Careful filtering would be required to help it work in a more noise environment, but perfectly possible. Maybe use something based around DTMF, only with more frequencies and running faster? And yes, encryption will be 100% required.

The advantage of audio is that you don't have to have the phone pointing directly at the camera of the laptop for it to be sensed - you can just hold it in your hand in a more natural position.