Facial recognition on personal use devices like smartphones and laptops has become increasingly common. The concept seems downright futuristic on the surface — most of us used a PIN, password, or pattern to unlock our devices only a few years ago.
However, even with the technology’s growing prominence, you should know that not all facial recognition implementations are equal. Some techniques are inherently more secure than others, while others offer optional settings to reduce the chances of an intruder tricking it.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the different types of facial recognition techniques in use today. Later, we’ll also discuss the feature’s security and whether you should enable it on your devices or not.
See also: How do fingerprint scanners work?
Camera-based facial recognition
As the name suggests, this technique relies on your device’s front-facing cameras to identify your face. Virtually all Android smartphones have included this feature since the release of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich in 2011. This was before fingerprint sensors were as mainstream as they are today, making it the first biometric unlock option.
The way it works is rather simple: When you enable the feature for the first time, your device prompts you to capture pictures of your face, sometimes from different angles. It then uses a software algorithm to extract your facial features and stores them for future reference. From that point on, whenever you try to unlock your device, a live image feed from the front-facing camera is compared against the reference data.
The accuracy primarily depends on the software algorithms used, so the system is far from perfect. It becomes even more complicated when devices have to account for variables such as different lighting conditions, changes in appearance, and the use of facial accessories like eyeglasses, jewelry, and even masks.
Camera-based facial recognition implementations have to strike a careful balance between accuracy and speed.
While Android itself offers facial recognition APIs, smartphone manufacturers have developed custom solutions over the years as well. Overall, the goal has been to improve the device’s recognition speed without sacrificing accuracy too much. However, some implementations infamously pushed the envelope too far and could be tricked into accepting a photograph.
Infrared-based facial recognition
While most devices already have a front-facing camera, infrared-based facial recognition requires additional hardware. However, not all infrared-based facial recognition solutions are made equal either.
The first kind of infrared-based facial recognition involves taking a two-dimensional picture of your face, similar to the previous method, but in the infrared spectrum instead. The primary advantage is that infrared cameras don’t need your face to be well-lit and can even work in dimly-lit environments. They’re also much more resistant to infiltration attempts since infrared cameras use thermal energy or heat to form an image.
Take a look at the following image from Microsoft, which highlights how infrared cameras see photos and screens.
These days, two-dimensional IR facial recognition is mostly found on higher-end laptops under the Windows Hello umbrella. That includes Microsoft’s own Surface devices and other business-focused laptops. That said, you can also get external webcams like the Logitech Brio 4K that contain IR-cameras certified for Windows Hello.
Infrared sensors can detect your facial features even in dimly-lit environments.
While 2D infrared facial recognition …….
Source: https://www.androidauthority.com/face-unlock-smartphones-3043993/