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Face Recognition Comes to Cameraphones
An anonymous reader writes "If you have a camera phone, you may soon have to take a picture of yourself before making a call or accessing data stored on the device. A Japanese company has developed face recognition software for camera phones that it says can authenticate users within one second of clicking the shutter. Omron (Japanese) will demonstrate its Okao Vision Face Recognition Sensor at tomorrow's Security Show Japan in Tokyo."
"How did you do it, son? And by that I mean how did you break into Darl McBride's files?"
"I took a picture of a magazine cover and I got access to everything, his phone directory, his notes, pictures, even his personal phone messages from Pariahs Anonymous."
You'd think they'd avoid visible light and use IR or a combo to pull this off, though in IR we can also look different depending which end of the ski run we are on ...
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Rocky: "Did it reveal anything Bullwinkle?"
Bullwinkle: "Did it?!? It's my new Linux boxen!"
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I am wondering how particular the recognition software is. There could be some considerable day-to-day differences in a face if, say, one was ill, or had a bad fall, etc. Could I, for example, take a friends camera, take a pic of a good photo of my friend and then gain access to his phone/pda/device? The article didn't really address that though I don't think it was intended to be within it's scope. Still, it's something to think about.
http://www.busyweather.com/
But what if you have to call an ambulance after getting into a car accident that damaged your face? :)
What if you are having a 'bad face day'?
Several companies have been doing this for quite some time, and a lot of great technology has come from it. Check out www.vidiator.com as one of several good examples. This will be widespread globally in the next 12 months I think.
Maybe it won't recognize me when I'm wearing my tinfoil hat...
This is great - until you are in a car accident and are bleeding from the face.
"I need to call [insert japanese equivelent of 911]."
"Sorry sir, facial recognition failed."
[Insert slow painful death]
How many roads must a man walk down? 42.
select all.nudies from pictures where camera.owner = "Parris Hilton";
I equivocate over the added features for cell phones. This is one that I can't see having too much impact here in the US. Face recognition for your phone? What for? To use my phone?
What if I lose or gain a few pounds? What if I grow or cut my beard? What if I get a new girlfriend and she changes my "look" with a new 'dew?
It is hard enough to get customer service for my phone as it is. I don't need to be locked out of my phone because I changed my diet.
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
Omron claims that the camera need not be held in the same position each time, and that the sensor will detect the owner regardless of the location of the user's face in the frame.
Given the current state of computers, I wonder how they can do this. If I take a picture of my face from the front right as a reference, and the next time from the front left, how will it stil recognize me? Same goes for a number of different angles. I'd also think that haircuts, glasses and a few other things could mess this up.
Be interesting to see how well it works in the field instead of in the lab. Anyone here have access to Akibahara for when this is released?
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
Considering that most camera phones are 1 MP, How accurate could this possibly be ?
Face recognition has been tried in various places for law enforcement, Tampa Florida in particular. The cameras and recognition software failed to assist in a single crimimal being identified from 10'000's of images. This was a multi-year trial. This crap might work under ideal conditions but it fails utterly under any real world conditions.
I have never worried about the security of my cell phone. If I keep important stuff on a portable electronic device like a pda, I password protect it. If someone wants my phone numbers, have at em.
So what happens if you are in an accident and have a distorted and gashed face trying to call 999/911/etc and all you have is a mobile saying "Error - user not authorised!"
That happens to me every day!
sulli
RTFJ.
...and use someone elses cell phone. All you need to do is lob of their head and carry it around in a sack with you. When you need to make a call, pull out the head and snap a picture; free cell phone minutes.
This could be rejected by human brains due to psychological reasons. Maybe because of the simple mechanism that my own cell phone is acting smart and wants to take my own snap for me to use it. Just a thought....
fuvoo: watch something
I can't actually think of any reason why facial recognition in a phone handset would be useful to anyone, ever.
I mean, as an authentication system for the phone lock, why would anyone want this over a keylock?
To recognize people so you can phone them? The flaw in that plan seems slightly obvious.
Any ideas? Anyone? I mean, the "recognize a street corner and text you a map" thing was pretty impractical, but this... I've got nothing.
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
Or what if you are tammy fey? do you have to put on the same face every day?
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
is Fist Recognition - to warn their owners of an incoming punch when they engage in obnoxious cellphone abuse in my presence.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
This is such a pathetic gimmick, in 6 months no one will care about about it or be using it - how many people here even use voice dial? It doesn't even have a use to it, there is simply no problem with entering a pin number and facial recognition is simply not that good, even in good fixed lighting conditions with a good camera and lots of computing power its bad enough to be annoying, for security i give this about 3/10 - its better than setting your pin number to all zeros, usefulness is around 4/10 - maybe you could find some kind of novelty application for it? why wait 1 second when your pin number is checked instantly? why bother taking a picture when you can often tap yor keypad without even looking, why waste R&D on this when people really just want flat-rate fast net-access on their phones, to be honest.
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Why do phones suddenly need biometric security devices?? As far as I'm aware, security isn't that big of a problem concerning cell phones. None or close to none of the current generation (or previous) of phones has much of any security like that, nor do many pda's I've seen.
Most people don't keep a lot of really sensitive data on their phones, and phones aren't really remotely hackable like normal computers. Why all of a sudden do we need face recognition on them??
Thinkin' Lincoln - a web comic of presidential proportions
Do you need a barcode on your face for it to work?
________________________________________________
suwain_2
There is the hassle of taking a picture of yourself, for one.
Like another poster mentioned, the possibility of something happening to injure your face, and causing you not to be able to access your own phone.
If this is your only phone, would you have to wash your hair in the morning and groom yourself before the phone would know who you are? Really... a good idea, just not a practical one
Windows has detected an undetectable error.
you've been in a fight and your face is less than perfect? Will you be able to open your phone and call for help?
Let's say, if some guy get defigurated by some people in a alley. He won't be able to call for help!
In the UK they have used this type of technology at sporting events to identify trouble shooters (guys that generally start riots at more than one game). They then re-verify those identified manually. Works pretty well whith people walking in a hallway into a stadium. And on tens of thousands of people as well.
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
Now all a terrorist has to do is cut off my head to use my phone!
God, Root, Whats the difference?
I can see it now. A rain slick road...sharp curve...crash...and a person with facial injuries unable to dial 911 because the phone doesn't recognize him/her.
I'm not a doctor, but I play one in bed.
Japanese people are as natrually hairless as they are diminuative so it's not a problem for them right now. But since we won't be seeing this until 2010 if ever, with the increases in computing power a solution for us mountain dwelling serial killers/grizzly impersonators should present itself.
So you get disfigured in a fire, accident or other tragedy and you cant call 911 or a friend?
It should be an optional security feature. Saying 'soon you'll have to take your picture to make a call' sounds a bit scary and annoying. Isnt this feature trying to protect the customer from unwanted charges anyway?
Seems to me it should just replace the old 3-4 digit lock code or something, but still just be something you activate when you're worried.
How would this help? If I stole someone's wallet with their family picture in it, could I not then use the cellphone?
See the Pictures of the Flood of '08
I want the facial recon to filter out calls.. Kinda like the firefox cookie blocker:
1. Ed calls John.
2. John's phone asks Ed's phone for a picture
3. Ed takes a picture of his face.
4. Ed's phone sends it to John's phone.
5. John's phone does facial recon to determine if his face is in the whitelist, if so, then it rings.
6. Otherwise forward to voicemail automaticly
You could have various settings, like "Theatre mode" where it only rings if that person is on the emergency list.. "Ex-Girl/Boyfiend" mode, where it just forwards to "this number has been disconnected"
Slashdot is like Playboy: I read it for the articles
AFAIK, no laws currently exist against loaning a friend your cellphone. I don't even think I've ever seen a TOS that prevents such a use.
So why should I need to authenticate myself to my phone? If I lose it, I have it deactivated and get a replacement anyway, so even that rather rare possibility doesn't pose enough of a risk to bother.
Or does this just go along with out steady descent into an Orwellian nightmare, where the government needs to know where (already have mandatory GPS in new phones) a given communications device gets used, and who uses it? "But I just wanted to order a pizza!" "Oh, and you consider that no big deal? I'll have you know the DHS/TSA considers it a huge red flag to order pepperoni and hamburg, but not with bacon or sausage! Ooops, I've said too much, sorry... Bailiff, would you please make the defendant dissapear?"
The article was extremely brief and didn't mention anything about how this software actually decides it's looking at the real user's face. what happens if I hold up a picture of the correct owner and snap a shot of that? I have a feeling the device will happily log me in unless it has some method of detecting 2D vs 3D.
-- I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist. It's not my fault that life sucks so much. --
My friend here at PennState University is working on face recognition research. He and I were suprised that such a technology was announced without us hearing about it ahead of time. Normally face recognition would not be useful for this purpose (security clearance). It is either too sensitive (not shaving, wearing sunglasses, etc) screws it up, or it's not sensitive enough to make it secure. Research here at the university was trying to find ways to fix these downfalls, but research on the subject is not even close to complete yet. I can't see this in anyway being as useful or complete as promised.
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Presumably, you'd be able to designate certain numbers as "security cleared", just like you can do on phones with normal security in the US.
Nokia phones for some time have allowed users to designated emergency numbers that are allowed to dial-out if their phone is locked. Most people set these to their home phone numbers (the only number that will dial out is the number of their home, so that if their phone is stolen, the first call made will be to their home) or 911, so that if they have their phone locked in an accident or something, they can call for emergency without having to remember the password in a pinch.
Personally I think the whole idea of password protecting my cell is ridiculous, but I suppose there are some people in sensitive places that need to have their phones protected against thefts and things. Like Paris Hilton.
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Now they won't just steal you cell phone.
They have to cut off your face too!
"What if I get a new girlfriend and she changes my "look" with a new 'dew?"
What is this girlfriend thing of which you speak?
"If you have a camera phone, you may soon have to take a picture of yourself before making a call or accessing data stored on the device." This is such BS. Why do people insist on taking mediocre news and bloating it into an apocalyptic event? I should make RFID toilet paper rolls that, in conjunction with a pocket RFID device, can transmit info back to the government about who's ass it's wiping, then we'd have news warning people about shitting in public restrooms.
How did you get up above it?
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
A neat use for face-recognition is Nikon's Face-Priority mode on some of its new cameras. It doesn't try to ID the face, but it tries to tell where the face is in the picture and makes sure it is in focus. This would be a godsend to my parents who can never focus a picture with two people in it -- the pictures are always focused on the background between the two people.
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
At least in the US, most cameraphones (including the smart variety) I've seen can't even show you the taken picture one second after snapping the shutter, much less analyze it and try to match it up to a (easily alterable) picture in a database somewhere.
This is only a cell phone. The goal is to reduce
the occurance of muggings for cell phones.
Desired security system properties:
a. fast and easy to use
b. resistant to rubber-hose attack ("give password!")
c. less than 0.3% false negative
d. less than 20% false positive
That'll do it.
Forget using this for security. Can I use to this to get the phone to remember girls names for me?
Just take a picture and up comes the girls name or it speaks it. Maybe even better if it reminds me where I know her from. Gone is the embarrassment of not remembering her name, leaving me only the embarrassment of trying to make conversation.
The Cleveland Clinic is looking for a patient to try this on.
You'll also need a new cell phone.
Have mercy on the phone that would have to recognize michael jackson's face
Maybe if they didn't load cell phones will all kinds of web-browsing, picture taking, mp3 playing, text messaging, tv playing extra features they'd be so cheap that nobody would care if they were stolen.
should just about any object or organ work? ;)
show the phone the finger, that's my password...
BTW: does the phone have nightvision?
Rain Rain go away come again some other day
So, this new technology is just debuting in Japan now? Good, we in the US won't have to worry about it for a decade or so...
One man's Funny is another man's Offtopic.
Right, that software will matched your smashed, broken face to the appropriate database record, no sweat. That's why you're not allowed to smile when you get your picture taken for your Passport.
Yeah, right.
I'm sure they've got that covered. On every phone I've ever owned, you can dial 911 and it will instantly unlock the keys and allow you to dial.
I originally purchased my phone in the UK. It does the same for 999 until I switch to a US SIM card... 999 stops unlocking (it just complains about the keys being locked) and 911 performs an emergency unlock.
Bunch of smarties behind GSM. I'm sure they won't leave a feature like that out of the new camera phones.
my evil twin. Drat!
"I can't actually think of any reason why facial recognition in a phone handset would be useful to anyone, ever"
CALL TO 212-555-9876 BLOCKED
IDENTITY: Ex-girlfriend
REASON: Facial recognition indicates you are drunk
STATUS: Call blocked to prevent possible embarrasing and/or regretable communications.
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
I think IR light is too transient to use for recognition. Everytime you're face heats up you wouldn't get into the phone. UV might work better, but wouldn't work with sunglasses very well. I'm wondering why passwords have gone out of style? They only take about a second to enter in.
(yeah - she's an incredibley rich idiot, but a pretty cute incredibley rich idiot, if you go for that sort of plasticky Los Angeles coke head look, and on a basic human level, hacking her phone was pretty lame...)
to happen to you.
So, you get one of these phones. Then, one day, some stalker asshat sees you and steals your phone. you figure: who cares? They need to have my face to get in!
And GUESS WHAT? HE DOES!!!
Where? From your own website! The thief downloaded your headshot from the website, or from some tabloid or fan site, blew it up, printed it out and simply HELD THE PICURE IN FRONT OF THE CELL PHONE CAMERA.
So much for Celebrity Protection.
It also fails the ordinary citizen. How?
Like so: Crack Head asswipe scum sucking FREEK pulls a gun on your ass, and relieves you of your wallet and cellphone. To get at you data in the cellphone, he just goes down to Kinko's, scans the picture off your driver's license, blows it up, prints it out, and then simply HOLDS THE PICURE IN FRONT OF THE CELL PHONE CAMERA. Ding. In like flint.
This is Yet another Example of a technology in search of a problem. It happens too often.
And yet another example of peole failing to realise that with Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, everything always already exists in a state of simulation. there is no "original face" to "photograph".
The camera doesn't "understand" the idea of "face". It just mechanically/electronically matches specific electrical charges between two sets of electrical charges. If they match by certain preset criteria (which are also stored as electrical charges) then it does one thing, if not, it does another.
It doesn't think, it doesn't decide. It's like a wind up toy.
RS
"the average idiot in the street needs more toys, more stimulation, harder drugs, faster fucks to just keep from slipping into a coma - maybe an iPod with a dildo that shoots coke up their ass. I fear their bloodlust." - TTE
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Does this remind anyone of the scene from the classic Steve Martin comedy "LA Story"? He is trying to call his mother on his voice activated phone, and has to continually say "Mom" louder and louder each time. The phone dials wrong numbers, dials no number, and generally doesn't work. The scene points out how ridiculous it is that we waste time on time-saving features; it would have taken seconds to dial the number.
A time-saving appliance only makes sense if it:
- Works reliably in real-life situations
- Has no learning curve
- Costs no more than the "time" you "get back" from it
Face-recognition camera phones just don't fit these criteria.
...not another thing to make it more difficult to talk on a cell while driving in a car! There are enough idiots zooming around at breakneck speeds, using only half of their attention to drive while they have one hand on the wheel and the other holding a cell phone (or fumbling thorough their pocket/purse/backpack to find the damn thing once it rings). Now people are going to have to try to take a picture of themselves while driving that is steady enough to be recognized by the software. That's it, from now on if my destination is not in walking distance of my house, I'm not going.
Since cell phone cameras don't usually seem to well in low-light situations, this could really help prevent drunk dialing!
People should stop buying these crappy feature-loaded phones. Instead, start demanding that the few useful features be good. So your phone has facial recognition but can't make a 5 minute call without cutting you off?
...just my 2 gil.
and for audio too. everyone has brought up the "use a picture" but if there were 2 or 3 cameras then a 3d reconstruction of the face could be done and short of plastering someones face it would be better than 2d. Also for audio, if there were 3 microphones then the position of the voice could be found and we could speak into the phone at 2 feet away and the only thing they would hear is our voice. It would help in crowded places as well, we could just whisper and no matter how loud the rest of the area is our voice would still get through.
A beautiful woman gets a new phone, gets home and finds out she has to take a picture of herself to use it. Somehow, she waits until the next morning I know, I'm pushing reality!! and takes the picture before applying her makeup. She gets in the car, gets stuck on the side of the road, and tries to call her husband. Sorry guys, did you think the beautiful woman would still be available? Now, she tries to make a call, and the phone refuses to allow her access, since she doesn't look anything like she did before the makeup went on. If she comes to the conclusion that her makeup is the problem, she searches through her pocket book and finds the equipment she needs and takes off her makeup. She tries again and the phone allows access.
Of course, if this was an emergency, she'd be SOL!!! :)
I have a bumber sticker in my cubicle that says
First off, face recognition software bases the match off of measurements of your face. (distance between eyes, nose height, etc) so wearing a hat, growing a beard, and bleeding profusely should not impair it's ability. Next up though is accuracy. In order to get a correct match there is some leway (at least with the systems I am familiar with). The problem there is that if you make it leanient enough to regularly make positive IDs (90%+ I'd imagine) it will also be leanient enough to allow a lot more people then just you in.
But why bother? It's a gimmick right? They bother because they have an investor. The investor may not even care about cell phones, the goal is just to improve facial recognition software, and to build it into small, highly portable, embeded units.
Imagine a wanted criminal confronted by the unknowing police. Criminal shows fake id and walks away. Now imagine if the police have a cell phone sized facial recognition system. The system may give a warning that the person resembles a wanted criminal, a closer inspection of the id shows that it's a fake, criminal is aprehended.
Although this implimentation is a gimmick, any improvements they bring to the technology can be adapted to future investments for more powerful and successful tools.
-Rick
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Sounds like social engineering to me.
I don't need a camera in my phone or a calendar or an organizer. I don't anytime minutes, I don't need a friends and family plan. How about instead of anytime minutes you give me some "anywhere" reception and we'll work from there.
The greatest hindrance to success is a well-rationalized excuse
"Police? Yeah, I'm calling from a pay phone after walking four miles. I got mugged and my face is all bruised so my cell phone wouldn't recognize me and..." This needs a password work-around like other biometrics not-ready-for-primetime.
If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
Here's somebody already doing it... http://www.nevenvision.com/
You're off your face ?
At least you won't be able to call home with an improbable excuse...
Finger puppets.
...beep... your funds have been transferred to your phone.
:-)
Oh wait, that was for teleconferences requiring video, wasn't it? But if this wasn't a reason to collect pictures of celebrities from the covers of The National Enquirer, what would be?
But I can just see where this might go - visual authentication to access bank funds. And a robbery might go like this.
Victim: Hey, leggo my hair!
Thief: Look into the camera! Don't turn around! Look at the camera! This is a holdup!
Thief: Now, hand over the phone! And I'll have to take your head with me (or a face slammed down onto a photocopy machine?)
On the other hand, it might prove to be a deterrance to buying more drinks on credit when you're shit-faced. (wait, that didn't come out right, did it?
Face recognition software will more likely find a better niche scanning lots of people from a distance, like at airports. Or, ala Minority Report, department stores. I think the implications of viable face-recognition technology are kinda scary.
The reason why they use the face recognition is because nowadays most cell phones have a camera anyway. It may be somewhat sensitive to IR light (as CCDs are), but most likely the manufacturers are NOT going to add another one...
a face and your ass? For that first identifying pic, I bet you could use anything.
/. to see what the geek community thinks. I know, been done before.
You have to wonder to: Omron comes up with a screwy idea and gets an 'anonymous reader' to post it to
After all, Japanese people all look the same!
Picture of myself? I will require pictures of incoming callers, validated by my server against my contact list, and presented when the call arrives. This useful face recognition harnesses the cooperation of both parties, who desire a positive ID, and folds all the tech stuff behind the scenes, so you just get a familiar face when deciding whether to take the call. Combined with a selection of automated responses, like "I'll be right with you" thru "Please leave a message" to "Delete me from your contact list or I'm calling the cops", this could rehumanize the conversations that a century of faceless phones have roboticized. Asterisk package, anyone?
--
make install -not war
Who's name will it say if you take a picture of your ass?
I hope you never have to make a phone call in the dark.
Most people are focusing on the fact that this is unrealistic to do in the mainstream phone world, which seems pretty obvious to me. I mean think about it, face recognition isn't very good yet, there's no way to prevent a photo of a person from working, why wouldnt they use fingerprint instead, etc, etc...
/. now?? The article states that there is a company developing this technology. The application would most surely be used for high-security environments (CIA, govt etc). The author just makes the ridiculous leap to "Soon you may have to take a picture of yourself before even making a phone call"...
What gets me is, what the hell IS it with
I mean it takes what, 4 seconds to just THINK about what you read before you post the article?
THE MAGIC WORDS ARE SQUEAMISH OSSIFRAGE
In the interview, a japanese engineer declared:
A limitation of our device is that it only works with orientals. This was expected because as everyone knows, all westerners look the same.
Okami!!
still stuck on this old beast
http://www.nokiausa.com/phones/252
Karma: Negative (Mostly affected by dorm trolling)
Buy me a drink? Sure but first let me check for you in the FBI's database of known criminals.
to Paris Hilton? It would be even more secure than her current Sidekick...oh wait, nevermind.
This sig donated to Pater. Long live
Anyone else see the posibility that this could be used by a twin with less-than-correct intentions? I know a set of twins who don't get along at all...they look almost exactly alike, but act completely different.
--<Mike>--