There seems to be no better way of telling your phone who you are than by showing your face. This seems to be what is in Apple's head when it designed a new technology for security relying primarily on "selfies". Apple was granted a patent that allows iPhone users to unlock their phones with a selfie. Sounds like the passcodes and fingerprints technologies are slowly becoming things of the past.
The BusinessInsider reports that Apple was awarded the US Patent No. 8,994,499 entitled "locking and unlocking a mobile device using facial recognition". This technology technically involves the taking of facial biometrics as a better alternative against Touch ID and the more recent Apple's fingerprint scanner found in their present flagship models.
However, facial recognition as a form of security is not novel per se and in fact, this is already available in Android Lollipop-powered phones for years called Trusted Face which is an annex of the Face Unlock that was first introduced on Android Ice Cream Sandwich. Trusted Face enables the screen (by pressing the power button) and when the camera is held in front of the face, the screen automatically unlocks.
Moreover, the founder of Alibaba Jack Ma introduced some mobile payment schemes unlocked or initiated by selfies. This technology called the Smile To Pay allows users to pay for services or goods using facial recognition by their devices in order to validate the payer's identity.
Many ask what is new with this Apple patent. One thing revolutionary about this technology is that it continues to guard the iPhone even if it has been unlocked using facial recognition. The technology continually takes photos of the user and locks the phone once the correct image (owner's face) fails to appear.
"In one embodiment, the image is analysed for a facial profile of a human face, without regard to a specific user" declares Apple.
With this improvement, Apple incorporates a system that tracks the movement of the phone to determine whether it is being held or simply placed on flat surfaces. However, BusinessInsider clarifies that there is yet no guarantee if Apple utilizes this technology in their new phones. In fact, Apple gets plentiful of patents yearly but only few are ever used.
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