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."

Comments

Yeah! More Crap 4 My Phone!

[geomon]

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.

the failure of face recognition

[andrewzx1]

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.

Re:the failure of face recognition

[MyLongNickName]

As I mentioned in another thread, this is MUCH different than trying to uniquely identify a person based upon an image. All the phone needs to do is see if the image COULD be you with a moderately high degree of certainty. A heavy white man who mugs a small black woman would not pass this test. This is not intended to be an absolute guarantee it is you... simply remove a whole lot of people from being able to use your phone.

Contrast this with criminal prosecution intent: I must prove this image is not of the other 4,999 guys who fit a very close image profile.

Re:How particular is the software?

[MyLongNickName]

Yea. Those muggers always take the time to analyze your technology, realize that you need facial-recognition, then say "cheese, sucker".

No security technology is foolproof. None. However, if it works as advertized, it is a nice security feature.

Not that I use a cell phone... I don't want people to find me at the drop of a hat :)

Begins with 'G' ends in about 6 months

[t_allardyce]

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.

Re:Begins with 'G' ends in about 6 months

[QMO]

I think that you're not understanding the market.
The cell phone market isn't driven by utility. It's driven by gimmicks. There is no other way to explain people buying $20 (or more) worth of ring tones.

The majority pay more for the new gimmick on the phone than they do for more bandwidth. The gimmicks are cheaper to develop. They are cheaper to introduce. And they are easily replaceable by the next gimmick, since they have no actual usefulness that needs to be maintained.

What?

[KillerDeathRobot]

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??

This is nice in the lab, BUT...

[Tavor]

How many people would use this in real life?

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

How Realistic Does This Seem to You?

[ultimabaka]

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.

fortunately...

[r00t]

There have been recent advances in face transplants. So, you could just get a new face. No problem.

The Cleveland Clinic is looking for a patient to try this on.

You'll also need a new cell phone.

maybe

[fred fleenblat]

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.

IR is too transient

[vortex2.71]

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.