Galaxy Nexus tip: shave before trying Face Unlock
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Face Unlock is the newest gimmick feature to hit mobile phones. It pushes along the grand tradition of features like Face Time, which look really cool and are sure to impress people, but don't have a lot of practical real world use. Face Unlock isn't very secure, we confirmed that it will easily be fooled by a picture, and there is another slight trouble with the feature: it hates facial hair. Face Unlock will likely still work if you have a beard or mustache, but it will be a lot more finicky, and have more trouble recognizing you, especially if you haven't trimmed your beard in a while.
Face Unlock is very fast and easy when it does work, but it's probably a good thing that ICS is being released after Movember. At least Google has another year to tweak Face Unlock before the next barrage of facial hair.
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15 Comments
2. bossmt_2 posted on 14 Dec 2011, 19:40 0 0
Would be interesting to see the improvements to this. My guess is the future is a progressive face unlock, like it records an update to your face everytime you unlock it so as your hair grows it can adjust.
4. MichaelHeller posted on 14 Dec 2011, 19:53 4 0
in general, it uses the size, shape and position of your eyes, nose and mouth, which is why someone who looks like you could hack it. I guess it uses color differentiation between skin and features, so facial hair causes problems.
5. denney posted on 14 Dec 2011, 20:15 0 0
I don't see why they haven't implemented a fingerprint unlock feature. Wouldn't it be incredibly easy with capacitive technology?
6. protozeloz posted on 14 Dec 2011, 20:21 0 0
See motorola atrix
I wish Google used that combined with NFC and wallet = fast secure way to pay
8. enjoi455 posted on 14 Dec 2011, 20:56 1 2
"Face Unlock is very fast and easy when it does work, but it's probably a good thing that ICS is being released after Movember."
Did you mean November?
9. blackrose posted on 14 Dec 2011, 21:11 1 0
Plus Google tells you its not as safe as pin unlock and others.so use it at your own risk
11. SlimSoulja86 posted on 15 Dec 2011, 01:52 1 0
Siri is not perfect as much as the face unlock, and please don't compare face unlock with outdated "Face Time", my low end phone can VIDEO CALL, while I have to use the so called face time on my iPhone[considering the fact that most of my friends and family members don't have Apple devices for Face Time], so they're both complitetly different thing. In my opinion face time is an old technology, which can be replaced by skype [like WTH]. So if we can give Siri the benefit of the doubt and say it'll work better after the beta version, why cant we say the same with face unlock, oh wait, it's not created by Apple. In my opinion your article praised Apple and d'sis Android, which is bn biased, like I said, just my individual opinion form what I read
13. rawdeal posted on 15 Dec 2011, 07:52 0 0
iphonearena strikes again....u guys come out of tainting android as ur efforts r not enuf...people will still lik android os
14. aztaxia12295 posted on 15 Dec 2011, 09:24 0 0
Brian Wilson just took a bat and slammed it against a cooler...
