Android 4.0 Face Unlock Defeated With A Picture

[bharat95]

At Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) launch event, the new Face Unlock feature was called ‘beta’, and it turns out with good reason. At a recent Samsung demo event, one reviewer had the chance to play with the Galaxy Nexus and test out the Face Unlock feature. After setting up the device to recognize him and unlock the phone, he was able to unlock the device with a picture of himself on a second phone. Oops.

Users have been wondering if this was possible, or if Google had worked out some sort of fix for this ago-old facial recognition problem. The demo filmed by the blogger was quite striking, with the device unlocking almost immediately. Clearly, this is not meant to be an ironclad security method.

it is important to note that there are currently a few different builds of ICS running on demo Nexus devices. It’s possible that the final version of the software won’t have this issue, but we expect that to be one of the first things tested when final review units go out.

[Sam]

ICS loves pictures, not real face.

[sygeek]

Facial recognition is not a foolproof solution, especially in mobile computing.

[MetalheadGautham]

This is a win as far as facial recognition is concerned. Its SUPPOSED to work like this in the first place - look for matching patterns and recognize a face no matter what is around it.

And that's the reason its NOT supposed to be used for unlocking phones

I'd love to see a phone with an eyeball scanner though

[bubusam13]

Originally Posted by MetalheadGautham

I'd love to see a phone with an eyeball scanner though

Waiting for that to come. Why not a DNA scanner ?

Simple Facial recognition algorithm normally look for the distance between eyes and nose tip. Complex algo measures various points like cheeks, lips, chin, etc. May be it is a simple algo in Android 4.0

[Sarath]

A phone can only do so much.

Also this was a prob in the early demo build of ICS and this thread is from November,

Any latest news on the matter from the Nexus Prime is appreciated

[d6bmg]

I think this as a embarrassment rather than a news.