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Cell Phones Learn to Recognize Their Owners' Faces
An anonymous reader writes "Oki Electric this week began marketing a technology that inexpensively adds face recognition to camera-equipped cell phones. Oki's 'Face Sensing Engine' middleware decodes facial images within 280 milliseconds on a 100 MHz ARM9 processor, and can restrict access to mobile devices by recognizing their owners. Its purpose is to safeguard sensitive personal data -- such as email addresses and phone numbers -- in the event of loss or theft of their devices. The technology works by locating and mapping key facial features -- such as eyes, eyebrows, and mouth -- and adapts to changing facial conditions such as winking and smiling, according to Oki."
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It's easy to offhandedly say who cares about the phone numbers of my friends and family. But for a sales force, keeping their contacts' information secure is one very important aspect of the job. If it is possible to create this security without requiring large lagtimes (like entering a PIN) or fault-prone hardware (fingerprint scanners), security becomes easier and safer than before for the average user.
I'd be anxious to see how well it works in the real world before trying it out, but if it is an inexpensive piece of middleware, I wouldn't be surprised if it started turning up on the high-end phones in Japan and Korea. I'd be surprised if they started showing up here in the U.S., but I'd be surprised if any sort of cutting-edge technology showed up for general consumption here.
I wish they had a demo.
Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
I think they are treating the phone a little too much like a gun.
It's not like it will be the end of the world if someone can access my personal phone information. I can control what I store on there; it's my own choice whether to put private things in a phone, and while the list of people I call is private, it's really not that big of a deal. And there are other ways of remotely restricting access.
Seems like a case of some technologists with a hammer, looking for a nail.
A criminal might find it easier to take a photograph of you than to steal your face.
The shareholder is always right.
Were you just joking, or did you get a chance to see this little animated GIF demo:
http://www.oki.com/jp/FSC/vc/en/
Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
"who would pay the difference?"
People that are horrible with remembering passwords, and/or people that just don't know any better.
Maybe one day this will be built into 'augmented reality' spectacles : you see an old colleague after years, and your glasses mark him up as "Mark Jones"
Maybe $1 for the algorithm license and $0 for the components (provided it already has a camera).