Mobile Face Recognition Might Replace Password/PIN

It's certainly an interesting area of development. One which is only going to grow once people have warmed to the idea of biometrics.

Does this mean we would have to image the memory card, find a picture, print it out and make masks in order to examine handset's?!

Reminds me of Jeremy Clarkson in Top Gear with his Bill Oddie mask!

Does this mean we would have to image the memory card, find a picture, print it out and make masks in order to examine handset's?!

Reminds me of Jeremy Clarkson in Top Gear with his Bill Oddie mask!

Good point Doug. You've probably identified the solution - stuff getting an image of the suspect….just call in Jeremy Clarkson D

Seriously though, my own initial thoughts would be to take a 3D-HDTV image of the suspect and see if the handset software recognises it, use your memory card solution or get the suspect to face a camera in interview that feeds through to the mobile phone. I can imagine human rights arguments may arise, but if the suspect is caught on CCTV whilst inside the nick or has his/her photo taken, then surely getting the image of a suspect to gain access to the handset would perhaps be analogous to getting the suspects's front door keys off him/her to unlock the 5-lever mortice lock and gain entry to a property - if you get the gist.

Let's not forget that the law states you can photograph anyone in a public place (http//www.met.police.uk/about/photography.htm)

So part of a phone examination could involve some paparazzi techniques. Could exchange your flasher box for a flash gun on a camera!

Ultimately for us, how much different is this than finger swipe, ear geometry, vein pattern, <or insert biometric of the day> data?

8) Let us not forget that the law states it in the United Kingdom that …

Let's not forget that the law states you can photograph anyone in a public place (http//www.met.police.uk/about/photography.htm)

So part of a phone examination could involve some paparazzi techniques. Could exchange your flasher box for a flash gun on a camera!

In fact, Doug and jhup, both of you are spot on with your observations.

Photos *might* assist if this software uses 2-D still detection/recognition. The use of image though is being challenged as a little extreme, difficult, and prone to inaccuracy, that fingerprint scan seems far more practicable - unless of course someone obtains a copy of the correct thumb/fingerprint copy used for log in.

If a handset can do facial recognition then it may also recognise physical gestures… so a specific movement/gesture in front of the handsets camera could perform an action in a similar way to the new and popular XBox Kinect.

Wave your right hand and wiggle your fingers to unlock?…

This could equally apply to computers as well as mobile devices. And as the Kinect system is a Microsoft product it most likely will be appearing for use on a PC as well fairly soon.

http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qlHoxPioM

If a handset can do facial recognition then it may also recognise physical gestures… so a specific movement/gesture in front of the handsets camera could perform an action in a similar way to the new and popular XBox Kinect.

Wave your right hand and wiggle your fingers to unlock?…

This could equally apply to computers as well as mobile devices. And as the Kinect system is a Microsoft product it most likely will be appearing for use on a PC as well fairly soon.

http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qlHoxPioM

the security of this could be further augmented by mandating that these actions are only recognised when the hand/finger is in contact with the phone, via, say some kind of touch screen/keypad interface.
To go further, for ease of use a mnemonic could be used, say a notable combination of characters that could be entered (via hand gestures) into the touchscreen/keypad interface.
twisted

I am looking forward to seeing people performing a small dance routine to unlock their phone! Going to make walking around town a funny sight!

I would put money on Apple linking these measures into mandatory updates to try and kill off the jail breaking communities efforts.

My hope is that the general public still fear this new technology for a few more years as its only going to throw a massive spanner in the works for traditional Phone and Computer examinations.