Facial Recognition for Handsets Coming

By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

A new technology using the Face Sensing Engine (FSE) by Oki Electric will be offered on a Vodafone Group handset in Japan this April, according to a press release by Oki. The technology will be able to complete verification in 1 second, and will use a 3.2-megapixel camera with 2X optical zoom for the verification. It will be included in the Vodafone 904SH handset, which is manufactured by Sharp.

“An owner’s face can be instantly verified,” said Masao Miyashita, president of Oki’s Network Systems Company, in a statement. “Going forward, we will provide such solutions to the embedded market for entertainment devices as well as to the mobile phone market.” Source: TechWeb

We Say: I’ve never been that big a fan of biometrics, and not because of scenes like in the movie Demolition Man. More because of interviews like a recent one on NPR recently, which outlined many errors that still exist in verification. I’m wondering what will happen if you decide not to shave for a day … or two … or go on vacation and come back with a full beard.