Google Awarded Face-To-Unlock Patent

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday September 5, 2012 @07:51AM from the slam-your-face-into-it-until-it-unlocks dept.

An anonymous reader writes "CNet reports that Google was awarded a patent yesterday for logging into a computing device using face recognition (8,261,090). 'In order for the technology to work, Google's patent requires a camera that can identify a person's face. If that face matches a "predetermined identity," then the person is logged into the respective device. If multiple people want to access a computer, the next person would get in front of the camera, and the device's software would automatically transition to the new user's profile. ... Interestingly, Apple last year filed for a patent related to facial recognition similar to what Google is describing in its own service. That technology would recognize a person's face and use that as the authentication needed to access user profiles or other important information.'"

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My lenovo laptop by sgent · 2012-09-05 07:54 · Score: 5, Interesting

has had this for over 2 years. It logs onto windows using facial recognition, and different users are logged in under their respective username.
Really? by gman003 · 2012-09-05 08:13 · Score: 4, Interesting

My Asus M50vm had that ability, back in '08, '09, one of those years.
It sucked, of course, but "working commercially-available implementation" should be hell of prior art.