It may sound like the stuff of James Bond films, but face recognition is now being proposed as a way to give users a more secure way to log on to their laptops.
Chinese computer maker Lenovo is preparing to showcase its IdeaPad notebook, which is the first PC to feature Lenovo’s VeriFace face recognition software. The technology – which allows the user to log onto their computer just by sitting in front of it, using their face as their password – will be shown at Lenovo’s forthcoming Innovation Tour in London on 22 June, an event aimed at press and partners.
When Windows users start up their PCs, a camera window pops up in the login frame. The user then just has to adjust their position so their face appears in the window, and VeriFace logs them in automatically.
Unauthorised users may not get onto the system, but VeriFace does give them a consolation prize: the chance to leave a video message for the real computer user.
The software is a registered trademark of Lenovo, and currently only works on Windows XP Home and Professional, Windows Vista and Windows 7.
A few years ago Lenovo was one of the first laptop makers to fit fingerprint readers, and included finger-activated hard-drive encryption in its ThinkPad notebooks. This allowed people to use their fingerprint to log on to a computer, rather than typing their passwords each time.
Lenovo may find itself sailing into dangerous water, however, as rival laptop maker Hewlett-Packard found last year. HP shipped facial recognition in some of its PCs, but the software was branded as “racist” when a YouTube video surfaced showing the software and camera failing to recognise an African-American man. In the video, the software seemed to recognise the white woman featured in the video but not her black co-worker.
“I’m going on record and I’m saying it: Hewlett-Packard computers are racist,” the black man Desi said in the YouTube video, although he appeared to be joking and smiling through most of the impromptu demonstration.
HP was quick to counteract the accuation, attributing the problem to insufficient foreground lighting. “Everything we do is focused on ensuring that we provide a high-quality experience for all our customers, who are ethnically diverse and live and work around the world,” said an HP spokesperson at the time.
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What a gimmick, though it will sell to idiots. If your employer end up with these, then your security department is full of fools.
Just like how a TV cannot show 3D (it looks like 3D due to visual cues, provided by perspective), how on earth can a camera see in 3D? Therefore the system can be tricked with a photograph.
If they have 2 cameras, then the system would be fool-able with 2 photographs, taken from the appropriate distance apart. You know, like those red toys that take a disc of pictures, and they show 3D images when looked through?
Also, how do you reset your face, like a password can be reset?
An utter gimmick. Avoid.
Hahaha, damn, does this mean I have to carry the whole damn head of my victim instead of just his thumb or eyeball?
This is SO old! I'm not sure where Miss Curtis did her research, but I've had Veriface running on my laptop for almost two years now!
It's a total gimmick, and is not very reliable. If I take my glasses off, or am in a place where there's light behind me, the system can't recognize me. If I use a photo, 80% of the time, it will log in! In my opinion, fingerprint scanners are more reliable, but the best way is to have 3 token identification... username + password + fingerprint or face or even RSA token would be WAY more secure than just relying on your crappy webcam to get you in.
Great! This will replace the challenge of guessing a password with the challenge of downloading and printing a picture of the owner from his company's website. Well, if his password would otherwise be '123456' or 'password', this could take slightly more time (depending on the speed of the printer).
Conclusion:
[ ] innovative idea
[x] no improved security (talk about security on a Windows machine, anyway...)
[x] no improved customer satisfaction (I didn't get across a biometric system that rejected me less often than I misspell my passwords, yet)