The latest version of Android unlocks your phone when you look at it. I wonder if you can specify an emotion? [Roy Furchgott / NYT]

  • citizen

    Android ICS already did unlock by facial recognition.  It was improved in Jelly Bean by asking you to blink, so a picture of your face won’t do the trick anymore.

    • retepslluerb

      So now we need a moving picture?

    • foobar

      They chose the one gesture everyone is compelled to do several times a minute at minimum?

    • TWX

       So Laina, recently famous for her Youtube video parodying Justin Beiber’s “Girlfriend”, won’t be able to use this technology?

  • http://twitter.com/Max_Occupancy Rob McD

    This is news?  Hasn’t this been available since late last year?  And ICS is no longer the ‘latest’ version of Android…

  • Cormacolinde

    This feature has already been shown to be insecure and can be defeated by using a picture:

    http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2396321,00.asp

    • http://twitter.com/benjymous/ benjymous

      Which is why the new version requires you to blink.  Which is the actual *new* feature

      • http://tokyofarm.com Spencer Cross

        So what you’re saying is that now I have to figure out how to get a severed head to blink?

        • scatterfingers

          Ah, modern art.

  • Dave X

    Designers should be thinking about these sorts of features with an eye toward the future– is it good design to essentially have a “lonely” phone that is always waiting for you to come back? Sounds like a miserable existence to me.

  • http://evilbobdayjob.blogspot.com/ Deidzoeb

    1. Facial recognition of emotion
    2. port to Google Glass
    = Douglas Adams’ peril sensitive sunglasses that go dark to prevent you from continuing to see things that trouble you. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_in_The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy#Joo_Janta_200_Super-Chromatic_Peril_Sensitive_Sunglasses 

  • http://www.zachstronaut.com/ zachstronaut

    We had a Lenovo laptop at work about a year ago with face-recognition screen unlock.  I defeated it with a photograph on the first try.

    • TheKaz1969

      I’m guessing you weren’t running the new version of the Android OS on that Lenovo laptop…

  • dragonfrog

    My wife tried this feature on her phone (ICS).  Maybe a picture of her face would have tricked it, but her actual face hasn’t worked yet – the light isn’t right, or it’s windy, or the phone isn’t at the exact right angle to her face, or who knows what…

    • http://re-becca.org/ Rebecca Turner

      I found that if I trained it in a few different varied settings, that it was very consistently reliable after that. (It seems to me that post people who complain if it failing, do the initial training but never go back to do “wearing hat”, “wearing sunglasses”, “in daylight”, “at night” sessions…)

  • oculus

    I wonder if this can be augmented to create a ‘drunk 3am call to ex lockout’ feature?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_TU5D6VMRBBBLDVJUDECJK435EU Justin F

    Next up: when my phone detects that it has been rotated sidewise, before it rotates the screen the other way to compensate, can it check the orientation of my eyes first? That way if I’m reading in bed on my side, it’ll be smart enough to know not to orient to gravity and stay readable.

    • scatterfingers

      I’d imagine you’ll see that soon… the S3 already detects whether or not you’re looking at your phone before it decides to switch off the screen.

      A feature I’d dearly love on my 3-year-old Android, which only detects if the phone is moving.

  • Robert

    What with the Visual Cortex project recognizing human and cat faces, I’m wondering if it will also work with my cat’s face.

  • GawainLavers

    Maybe I need someone to snap a photo with their own phone, but I keep getting this error message (underneath the front-cam picture of my face):

    “Couldn’t find a face.”

    • TheKaz1969

      before we go any further, I need to ask… do you have a face..?

      • GawainLavers

        I wouldn’t dare to argue with technology.