New Android Unlock Feature Trickery!

If you follow Android news, you'll know that one of the big features rolling out with Ice Cream Sandwhich (from here on will be called 'ICS' for short) is the Face Unlock feature being included in the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.  So here's the deal, the device will use facial recognition to unlock your device.  That's awesome and it doesn't impede upon one of Apple's patents, right?  Sure is.

Or at least it was until some wiseguy decided to try and beat the feature at it's own game.  And let's just say, he won.  It was posed as a question from Twitter to SoyaCincau as to whether or not the Galaxy Nexus face unlock feature could be unlocked using a printed picture of the owner's face.  In his test, he didn't even need to kill a tree or waste ink on printing a picture.  He used the Galaxy Note device and took his own picture.  And guess what, it worked.  The Samsung Galaxy Nexus unlocked.

It has also been called to question as to whether he setup the device to unlock with the picture or setup the phone to behave the way it did.  His answer is that he setup the phone to unlock using his face, not the picture.  And he is sticking to that story.  Which in my opinion is completely believable.  After all, facial recognition isn't doing anything other than comparing a fresh image of your face with one on file somewhere in a database tucked away inside the operating system on the phone (all geeky references to how the technology actually works aside, this is basically it).

So, the concept that this could be tricked makes a lot of sense to me.  What do you think?

I can see a couple of ways this could be a pain for someone.  Say someone is having a meal with you and snipes a picture of you while you're waiting for your meal using their iPhone 4S (for example).  You get up and go to the restroom and while you're gone they use the image of you on their device and unlock your phone.  For kicks they now set your unlock screen feature to match their face. It seems you'd be locked out of your own phone right?

I like the concept of facial recognition for unlocking the device.  However, I don't see how this is anymore secure than a lock screen pattern or passcode.  Both of which can easily be circumvented should someone be attentive enough to watch you unlock your phone.

If you'd like to watch the video yourself check it out at:
http://youtu.be/BwfYSR7HttA

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Apple's New Award: Patented Slide to Unlock

No doubt there are advantages to being first to the game when it comes to a big company making a product.  We all see it every day (and have encountered it for years).  When it comes to Apple, they are currently one of the leading, trend setting companies out there.  They make a design and it takes off with the general public and they make money (lots and lots of money).  So naturally another company comes along and uses a competitors product for inspiration.  That has been the way of the consumer electronics world for many years now.

Well, it looks as though Apple has another win under it's belt when it comes to the 'slide to unlock' gesture that just about every touchscreen device and smartphone now uses to wake it up or unlock the screen so it can be used.  Although the appearance of the 'slide to unlock' screen may be different on various devices (given that none really mimic the exact look of Apple's unlock screen).  But they do require the same gesture to unlock certain devices.

In typical patent battle fashion, the patent name is so generic that it would no doubt encompass pretty much every method of physically touching a screen in any motion just to unlock it.  The patent name is: "Unlocking A Device by Performing Gestures on an Unlock Screen" U.S. Patent Number: 8,406,721.  So what will happen to the lock screens that people have come to know as a defacto standard among smartphones and other handheld touchscreen devices?

I'm sure this will help Apple's crusade against companies who back similar devices to Apple's product lines (essentially Google with their Android devices/system and possibly anyone else who uses this gesture to unlock a device).  This could be a big slap in the face for Google, since a slide to unlock feature has been pretty much built into Android from the very start and with Microsoft already cashing in on patents targeted at Google, maybe Android lock screens will change for the better.

It's been said many times over the last several weeks that Ice Cream Sandwhich (Android's latest iteration) will feature facial recognition to unlock the screen.  Maybe they should run with that.  Just make sure you don't have to physically touch the screen or Apple will get ya!  lol

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