The End of Times for Passwords: Apple Inc.’s “Low Threshold Face Recognition” Patent Application

The world of passwords for electronic devices is on the brink of extinction if Apple, Inc. (Apple) is able to effectively develop its latest published patent application. On December 29, 2011, the USPTO published US Patent Application 2011/0317872 entitled, “Low Threshold Face Recognition”  giving the public a first glimpse into the revolutionary possibility of electronic devices not only recognizing a user’s presence, but also discerning whether the user is authorized and thereafter unlocking accordingly.

Although facial recognition systems have been around for some time, some believe that this application may be the first design that actually has the ability to work well enough such that normal passwords may become a thing of the past. In fact, Nigram Arora, a contributor to Forbes.com and a self-described “electrical engineer with a long background in patents,” claims that with this patent application, “Apple is about to change how we function in our daily lives.”

So how does it work and why is it so different from previous facial recognition patents? As described on PatentlyApple.com, Apple's inventionuses a reference model to match “high information” features of a face to the reference model. These “high information” features may include the eyes, nose, mouth, etc., of a face, including the distances between such features. In addition, the facial recognition technology incorporates a weighted system such that differences at non-high information areas do not drastically affect the facial comparison. In addition, the application uses an orange-distance filter to recognize skin tones and determine when a face is in front of the image capturer. The abstract of the applications sets out:

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, are disclosed for reducing the impact of lighting conditions and biometric distortions, while providing a low-computation solution for reasonably effective (low threshold) face recognition. In one aspect, the methods include processing a captured image of a face of a user seeking to access a resource by conforming a subset of the captured face image to a reference model. The reference model corresponds to a high information portion of human faces. The methods further include comparing the processed captured image to at least one target profile corresponding to a user associated with the resource, and selectively recognizing the user seeking access to the resource based on a result of said comparing.

The key distinction of Apple’s facial recognition design is effectively set out in the title of the application describing the design as having a low threshold.  The low threshold level is significant because it allows for correct recognitions of a face even with a reasonable number of false positives.

In summary, Apple’s patent application describes a feasible system of replacing the normal password protections associated with various electronic devices. Thus, once Apple is able to put a working system into place that is capable of providing or surpassing the reliability and assuredness of using passwords, it is only a matter of time until our electronic devices will be able to unlock themselves due to our presence alone.

Image by d’n’c on Flickr Creative Commons- some rights reserved.