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."

Not So

[Ironsides]

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.

Re:This is easy to hack...

[Enigma_Man]

I think you mean "lop", not "lob". You could also just take a picture of their face, and carry it around in a sack. It'd be much lighter.

-Jesse

Face Recognition Work

[KingOfTheNerds]

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.

Presumably...

[Ieshan]

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.

Re:Hmmm.. Another idea...

[entrager]

Even better:

1. Ed calls John.
2. John's phone checks Ed's caller ID against a whitelist.
3. John's phone rings.

Sometimes people insist on using technology just for the sake of using it. How about some practicality?

And as for the inevitable "what if Ed's caller ID is blocked?" arguements that are sure to arise, do you really think Ed will want to photograph himself every time he makes a call if he chose to have his caller ID blocked? I think not.

Steve Martin's LA Story

[addie]

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.

Re: 1 Megapixel

[wcb4]

NOPE!, a 3MP camera, well 3.2, is 2048x1536. So a 1 MP camera would be 1152x864 or so, if square, it would be 1000x1000.

Why not IR

[elgatozorbas]

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 ...

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...