Awarded to Apple on Tuesday by the US Patent and Trademark, a patent called "Personal computing device control using face detection and recognition"
envisions a method to access your iPhone and other devices based on
facial detection and recognition. As such, your face would act as a
password, allowing only you to answer a phone call and perform other
tasks.
The technology would start by scanning your face in order to record
all of its unique features, such as texture, color, size, and shape. You
could run the same process for any other person whom you want to use
your iPhone.
In response to an incoming call, your phone would scan your face to
make sure it matches that of an authorized user. If so, the call goes
through, and your iPhone displays the usual incoming call screen. If
not, the device remains in lock mode with only the ringtone chiming
away.
The same security could apply for incoming e-mails. Looking at the
iPhone would alert you to and display an e-mail. An authorized face
would prevent the e-mail alert and hide or block the actual message.
The technology seems most at home on a mobile phone. But Apple's
patent points to its use on other devices, including TVs, PDAs, and
personal computers. As one example, your PC's screensaver could react to
your face rather than to a preset period of inactivity.
An approved patent doesn't necessarily mean this technology will become a
reality. But Apple did take a first step in password evolution with the
introduction of its Touch ID fingerprint sensor on the
iPhone 5S. Facial recognition is already used by other products, such as Microsoft's Kinect and Sony's
PlayStation. So using your face to drive your iPhone seems like a logical step at some point down the road.
Source: CNET
No comments:
Post a Comment