Apple Files Facial Recognition Patent for iOS Devices

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Posted December 29, 2011 at 8:34pm by iClarified

Apple has filed a facial recognition patent which details a practical security system for iOS devices, reports PatentlyApple. The system would be able to recognize your presence and face to quickly wake up your device and display your home screen without any touch input. It would also be able to operate at higher security level when needed, for example, when you're at work.

Apple outlines various methods that could be used to identify the user...

The reference model includes a reference image of a face, and processing the captured image further could include matching the eyes of the detected face with eyes of the face in the reference image to obtain a normalized image of the detected face. Additionally, processing the captured image could further include vertically scaling a distance between an eyes-line and the mouth of the detected face to equal a corresponding distance for the face in the reference image in order to obtain the normalized image of the detected face. In addition, processing the captured image could further include matching the mouth of the detected face to the mouth of the face in the reference image in order to obtain the normalized image of the detected face.

Figure 1 shown below illustrates a user walking up to an iPhone. The device recognizes the presence of the user, identifies the user, then transitions to a new state to acknowledge the user.

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Apple Files Facial Recognition Patent for iOS Devices

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Mustang - December 30, 2011 at 10:39pm

This simply means someone could spy on you all the time...

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? - December 30, 2011 at 7:42am

More Idea theft by Apple!

captain obvious - December 30, 2011 at 5:03am

And this is why iClarified sucks... Apple did not file a facial recognition patent this year... THIS PATENT WAS FILED IN 2010!!! It wasn't until recently that it was let loose to the public...

Kim Brown - December 30, 2011 at 2:18am

This article describes a small part of the technology that FastAccess has used since we innovated this type of face recognition in 2006. At CES in Jan '12, we will demonstrate FastAccess Anywhere for mobile. Using patent pending technology, we have optimized it to recognize faces in real-world mobile conditions. Our tech is highly resistant to photo and video of an enrolled persons face. We make it much easier and more secure to access password-protected web sites and apps. sensiblevision.com/faa

Really!!! - December 30, 2011 at 12:46am

Wait does that mean the camera will be on at all times waiting for your presence? Sounds like a waste of battery to have it work like that.

Amriibacchus - December 30, 2011 at 2:05am

Or turns on when you hit the home button... makes more sense...

Kain - December 30, 2011 at 4:40pm

Neither. Having to press the home button to activate pretty much negates the entire premise of the patent. There would need to be a separate proximity sensor in the phone that would activate the camera when it senses motion. Battery drain would happen when people constantly walk by the phone like when at work or home if there are a lot of people around. Preventable by disabling the sensor or putting the phone screen side down.

I_Heart_Android...Not.. - December 29, 2011 at 8:58pm

If Apple wins this patent, what happens to the current facial recognition unlock feature in ICS on the Galaxy Nexus? Sounds like more bad news bears for Android..