“Liveness” in Facial Recognition Security.
The latest version of the Android software, known as Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, has a unique new feature as part of the Face Unlock app from the previous OS update: Blink Detection.
Called “checking for liveness,” Android devices equipped with the Jelly Bean system will not only use facial recognition technology to unlock devices, but they will offer the feature to check for “liveness” by detecting whether or not the face trying to unlock the device blinks.
This new feature was added because the original face detection software, though effective, could be easily fooled by putting a picture of the designated face in front of the device. This meant that anyone with the picture of the phone’s owner could potentially unlock the device, making the biometric security measure pretty pointless.
The small addition works great, and people are pretty pleased. But what else does this feature prove?
Not only are biometric elements, such as facial recognition, possible on mobile devices, but blink detection is, too. Does this mean we could see full-fledged eye tracking technology making it’s way into future devices? I know plenty of experts think this is the case. Within the next few years, maybe we’ll see some fun new features popping up in the mobile phone world.