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Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich looks pretty good. It’s got a bunch of new features, like an updated look, improved notifications, and an awesome browser. Oh, and anyone with a picture of your face might be able to unlock your phone. Uhhh, guys?
The SoyaCincau blog put the new Face Unlock feature of ICS to the test at a recent Samsung event, and it was cracked pretty easily by a picture of the user’s face on another phone. The writer claims that he programmed the lock to recognise his actual face, not the photo on the other phone, and after a few tries, viola—unlocked Galaxy Nexus.
At the time of its announcement, a lot of folks were murmuring that something like this would be possible, but The Next Web notes that Android-focused Developer Advocate Tim Bray settled everyone’s concerns by saying it wouldn’t. Now, um. We’ll let you know if Google has anything to say about the video; and of course, ICS isn’t even out yet, so there’s still time to patch a fix if something’s amiss. But for the moment, jealous boyfriends and girlfriends everywhere have something to celebrate. [soyacincuatv via HuffPo, The Next Web]
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Is this really such a big deal?
Considering how facial recognition works it’s pretty obvious. How would you suggest if differentiates between a picture and the real thing?
It’s not about making it more secure, it’s about offering people an insecure way of locking their phone. I’m not saying it’s a good or bad thing, for those that have less to worry about if may be quicker and easier and for people like my sister it would mean I have full access to her phone whenever I wanted, they’re simply pointing out a vulnerability for those that are thinking of using this in the future.
Not sure what the fuss is about, I don’t think face unlock was ever touted as a SECURE lock on your phone, it’s meant to be an EASY way. All it does is create a matix of points on you face (eyes/nose/mouth) and compare them with the matrix stored when you set it up. Personally, I’m hoping to try this out for myself in 5-9 days when my Galaxy Nexus shows up.
A cooler approach to that solution would be to create the matrix and then have the user define a second matrix from a certain facial expression, then the phone could track both matrices or additionally the transition between them
It’s still pretty shit though, especially when Google/Samsung are touting it as a feature of the OS/new phone.
one possible solution to this would be to use multiple cameras to track depth (to track object movement in the foreground and background separately) and to track movement?
Surely it was pretty obvious that this would happen. Any time I’ve ever seen an example of this technology (such as with my Dell laptop) a picture could be used as a work around. I’m more surprised that it’s taken people so long to actually mention it. I don’t see it as a huge deal myself. Most people I know don’t even lock their phones so this is just an additional option for those that hate entering keycodes.
2 thoughts…
1:
If this came out via Apple, it would be better than sliced bread, better than the Spork. better than hover boards. You would hear the fanboys parading the streets talking about iFACE, and how all the android crew have out of date tech. Sorry I fear this might be overlooked as a rant.
Point 2:
Thieves would have to take a picture of their victims using their own phone or camera before stealing the phone. More difficult than snooping someone’s unlock code/pattern, but still completely do’able.
FCUK APPLE!