Face Unlock?

[mrkelly88]

What were to happen if you took a picture of the owner's face and put it in front of the camera for the unlock?

[rubiksc00p]

Don't worry, Google probably already thought of that! =P But that is a good question. I wonder if it has to be 3D...

[Trusstopher]

Don't worry, Google probably already thought of that! =P But that is a good question. I wonder if it has to be 3D...

Now I'm having flashbacks to the first Mission Impossible movie with all the face-replica masks and using them to hack people's phones...

[mrkelly88]

Wouldn't a fingerprint scanner be more secure?

[Larry Mahnken]

Wouldn't a fingerprint scanner be more secure?

That would be a hardware decision, while the face unlock is in the OS.

[sajgel]

Im thinking of the movie Face/Off

[mrkelly88]

That would be a hardware decision, while the face unlock is in the OS.

True, I just hope its really secure seeing that apps like Google Wallet are being released and that puts even more important data on your cell phone

[patriot95]

True, I just hope its really secure seeing that apps like Google Wallet are being released and that puts even more important data on your cell phone

For some reason I'm still most comfortable with a number combo unlock. We'll see how well it works I guess.

[JSM9872]

We actually had a similar discussion in one of the news threads about this. It was concurred that the "advanced" recognition technology would [we assume] be able to make the distinction.
An interesting point was brought up, by I believe Trusstopher. Something that would be cool about it is if someone has tried to access your device and failed it would show you a snap shot of that person. Obviously speculation but I would imagine it could have the capability to do so, if not now, at some point.

[ice456789]

That's the same issue that laptops that use facial recognition unlock deal with. They handle it many different ways. First off, if you hold the picture at any kind of angle it won't work because the measurements of your face won't match up. In other words if the picture is tilted it will either make your features look longer or fatter. Secondly if the pic doesn't match ambient lighting then it is discarded. Any shine on the pic would also throw it off.

But that's all things that computers with face recognition do, I have no idea if the cell phone will do it. If you need ultra security for national secrets then don't use it. If you want to keep people from finding the nudie pics of your girlfriend, then facial recognition should do the truck.