Anyone that's ever had their email, Facebook or World of Warcraft account hacked knows that maintaining robust computer security is serious business. There are tons of applications out there to protect your online information, like 1Password, but significantly fewer solutions available to ensure the security of mobile platforms on an as-needed basis.

The data-mining sorts over at Patently Apple have uncovered a patent that suggests Cupertino may have a typically elegant solution for mobile hardware and software security on the way. The patent details what Apple calls an "exciter," and the possibilities for the technology are worthy of the name.

Typically, if you're looking to pair two devices, let's say your iPhone and your MacBook, you'd set up a connection and one of your two devices would generate an authentication key that has to be plugged into the other device before communication would be allowed. At some point in our computing careers, most of us have done this. What Apple has filed a patent application for could make such tedious code entry a thing of the past.

Instead, when pairing two or more devices, the user would have one device that is the "exciter" providing physical stimulus--a vibration from an iPhone's vibrate function or even tapping the device against a table top, for example--that could act as an authentication key with no typing required. A unique code could be generated every time, based on the space between taps against the desktop, the frequency of vibration or even the amount of ambient light sampled at the time when the new code is requested. The code could be sent to the other deivces over any number of technologies, including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, a cellular network or even via a torrent.

Now that's revolutionary.

As usual, we'll caution you to remember that a patent aplication is just that--an application for a patent. Apple files tons per year. No matter how cool or revolutionary any one of them might be, most won't see the light of day.