Face Unlock On Android 4.0: Unlock Your Phone By Looking At It

Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphone, which runs on the latest version of Google's Android operating system, Android 4.0, offers users a whole new way to unlock their phones.

Face Unlock uses the Galaxy Nexus' front-facing camera and facial recognition software to recognize the phone's owner and unlock the screen. At least that's what it's supposed to do: while demonstrating Face Unlock at the unveiling of the Galaxy Nexus, Android Director Matias Duarte was unable to get the phone to recognize his face.

At All Things D's AsiaD conference, Google's mobile SVP Andy Rubin didn't have any difficulties getting the facial recognition feature to work.

According to Engagdget, the Galaxy Nexus isn't the first gadget to offer this feature:

Facelock, which was announced at Nokia World 2010, required users to set a photo of their face as the key so that the front-facing camera could match their face to the photo and unlock the phone. The fact that the Galaxy Nexus has a similar functionality isn't surprising when you consider the list of supposed Nexus apps that was leaked in September. At that time, some websites noted the appearance of something called "FaceLock.apk" on the list of applications to be included in the new Samsung, Google phone.

Face Unlock isn't the only new feature on Ice Cream Sandwich. As reported in The Huffington Post, at Tuesday's event, Duarte, said that although people "like" and "need" Android, "people don't love Android." The goal of the 4th generation Android OS was to change all that by making the interface more visually appealing. Some of these changes include larger pictures, resizable widgets and home, back and search buttons right on the touchscreen.

Even before this update, Google and Samsung were already on top of the smartphone market. As reported by comScore, Google's Android is the most popular smartphone platform and Samsung handsets are the most widely used phones. Even so, on Tuesday, Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer dismissed Android as a competitor, reportedly saying, "You don't need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone. I think you do to use an Android phone." Maybe U.S. smartphone users are smarter than Ballmer gives them credit for since Microsoft phones only command 5.7 percent of the smartphone market.

Click over to Engadget for a demo of the Face Unlock feature.

Check out the biggest changes offered in Android 4.0 (below).

Comments

[fairplaystacy]

07:46 AM on 10/21/2011

Siri is hands free. Why do I need to unlock my phone with my face when I'm using it from my pocket?

[No Yards]

09:06 AM on 10/21/2011

As can anyone else so it seems.

Personally I probably won't be using this feature as a security device, but facial recognition can have many new applications beyond simple face recognition. Maybe someone is smart enough to come up with a way to take regular pictures of your breasts (using a version of this kind of pattern recognition software and infra red imagining, already crudely supported in Android phones) to use in early detection of breast cancer?

Maybe almost as useful as talking to your pocket to tell it you love it?

[Dalm]

12:18 AM on 10/21/2011

Sounds practical. Now I can unlock some peoples phones just by having a picture of them on my iPhone ;D

[Pectin]

09:18 AM on 10/20/2011

I thought they meant something else by "unlock your phone"...

[KarateKid]

09:07 AM on 10/20/2011

It never ceases to amaze me how Android fans, who are ostensibly happy with THEIR choice, are so resentful and h8ful towards people who prefer iPhones. Like, who the _hell cares??

[Pectin]

09:35 AM on 10/20/2011

I think some people are just jerks, and once they pick one OS or the other, they behave the way you describe. No matter the OS, there's a rude fanatic bent on disparaging all users of the others. The excuse for their behavior is the rude fanatic on the other side.

[Onutz]

02:18 PM on 10/20/2011

((Like, who the _hell cares??))

THEY do!! They're obsessed with what other people are doing. What other people think. Who's leading, who's following, who's trying to be cool, who's square etc...
It's like real Jr. Highschool mentality.
By the way, I heard that fanBois have cooties...

[KarateKid]

02:59 PM on 10/20/2011

LOL.

[KarateKid]

08:48 AM on 10/20/2011

Ok, fine, but has the battery life improved?

[Stu11]

08:55 AM on 10/20/2011

battery life on my droid 1 and thunderbolt have been great. Hows the data speed on your iPhone.

[KarateKid]

09:05 AM on 10/20/2011

Good enough. I don't walk around with two phones in my hand to compare speed. It's all relative. It's just like computers, once it's fast enough, speed comparisons become irrelevant. My battery lasts two days with constant use? Is it fun carrying around extra batteries? Don't forget to recharge them......

[PhillyKing]

12:39 PM on 10/20/2011

therein lies a huge problem for ALL smartphones, not just the droids... Apple notoriously does better than the other manufacturers but not by much... they all need to focus more in this arena... and btw, just in case ur just another apple fan, the new 4s has worse battery life than the 4 according to my two colleagues here that are super fans...

[KarateKid]

12:45 PM on 10/20/2011

I have the 4 and will not upgrade. I want to wait until 5 comes out, then compare it to the Android phone, most likely the Galaxy, before I go further. For me, screen resolution is the most important since I like to watch videos and movies on my phone. I figure the mp3 players are about the same, and that's the other thing I do with my phone. I don't play any social networking games so speed is not the biggest factor, but to watch a movie and end up with 30% battery life left is a deal breaker.

I got a Mophie Air for the 4 and it works great. I don't have to recharge for 3-4 days. But, I hope all makers pay more attention to battery life and not the other stuff moving forward.

[hypnotoad72]

10:56 PM on 10/19/2011

Well...

The unlock method of drawing the line/pattern on the screen is bad enough, because oil from the finger creates a residual line for anyone to see.  (I know, wipe your finger all over it - or at least try to remember to.)

Something tells me this can be hacked remarkably easily.  I won't start spouting possible techniques until I get my hands on a device to try them out.   And I don't mean just holding their face in front of it... if anything that can allow the thief to know the name of the person who owns the phone, but a theory is not the same thing as proving the exploit can exist...  still, I don't work in security, so my guess is somebody who develops this fluff has already tested... then again, most businesses see QC as being too costly - so maybe potential loopholes exist... either way, the chances of forging a face is still slim, and the camera's resolution would likely be high enough to see a cheap reprint of a low-res image...  I hope!  Then again, it was mentioned below that the feature would not recognize Android Director Matias Duarte's face when testing, so maybe it is possible...

I'll stick with a lengthy PIN containing a dozen alphanumeric characters.  Why think differently when more straightforward ways that aren't easily overrode by "brute force attacks" already exist?  Then again, some people tape their PINs to their monitors, under their keyboards, on the back of their phones, etc...  either which way, there's always a gimmick...

[Chuck Dick]

09:59 PM on 10/19/2011

Typical Google, releasing half-baked software and using the public as its beta testers.

[hypnotoad72]

11:05 PM on 10/19/2011

Typical Microsoft, typical Apple... typical all-of-them at one point or another. :(    it's cheaper for them, especially as modern systems are fairly large.  Still, by delegating away their QC responsibilities, that's helped reduce prices.  (Just like how everything else claimed to reduce prices... hasn't...)

[KarateKid]

08:48 AM on 10/20/2011

Not to mention ALL of them manufacturing in China to reduce prices.....some will have us believe Apple is the only one doing that.

[Eris23]

09:43 PM on 10/19/2011

This is not always a great feature. There have been a number of other computer devices that enabled a similar feature via their cam. How to break into it? Hold a picture of the owner in front of the camera. Yes, it's been that simple.

[Tochi Opara]

03:11 AM on 10/20/2011

I think the software in ICS is configured to detect blinking eyelids, twitching nose and other moving human features on the face reducing the risks of tricking it with pictures.

[Christopher Matemba]

09:24 PM on 10/19/2011

The Ice cream Sandwich introduces another smarphone capability with face un lock and voice input - they should launched this operating system with the Droid Razr. The nexus is still on the 5mp camera platform while all of the rest are competing with 8megapixel camera's going into christmas.

http://www.gadgetrophy.com/2011/10/ultimate-smartphones-for-christmas-2011.html

[BruntLIVE]

09:00 PM on 10/19/2011

men will not buy this, men do not like round phones

[Pectin]

10:16 AM on 10/20/2011

Absurd.

[fairplaystacy]

06:09 PM on 10/19/2011

Android Director Matias Duarte was unable to get the phone to recognize his face.

Embarrassing

[Jaime01]

06:23 PM on 10/19/2011

I seem to remember the iPhone 4 demo failing during the big unveil. These things happen.

[JohnTheMac]

08:30 PM on 10/19/2011

really? What happened?