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Home » Posts tagged 'Face Unlock'
Galaxy Nexus face unlock capabilities further tested
Posted:
April 6, 2012
By: soyacincau
1 comment
The Galaxy Nexus Face Unlock is a nifty party trick to unlock your phone. While it looks state of the art, it is possible to fool it with a picture of the owner.
Singtel has done a couple of Face Unlock tests on its TGIS (Thank God It’s Singtel) show. This includes testing the Galaxy Nexus with identical twins, digital photo, heavy make up and funny faces. This video isn’t exactly new but it is still interesting to watch.
Recently Samsung has finally found a solution to the photo loophole by implementing blink detection to its Face Unlock feature. This will be rolled out together with Android 2.3 Value pack for Galaxy S.
Samsung develops own Face Unlock which requires you to blink
Posted:
March 29, 2012
By: soyacincau
2 comments
Samsung is expected to roll out an update to existing Samsung Galaxy S users which brings ICS like features on Android 2.3. One of the new features is Face Unlock as leaked earlier on.
While Face Unlock isn’t something new for those who have been using Galaxy Nexus, Samsung has added some extra security measures by incorporating blink detection. Earlier on, we managed to fool the standard Galaxy Nexus Face Unlock with just a digital photo of a face shown from the Galaxy Note. Looks like Samsung was able to solve this security loophole way before Google.
It is also very likely that Samsung will include this improved Face Unlock on the rest of their Galaxy Android smart phones as well. Hopefully the Galaxy S II and Galaxy Note units in Malaysia will get it soon with ICS.
Related Post
Clarification on Ice Cream Sandwich Face Unlock
Chief Android designer responds to Face Unlock Issue
Galaxy Nexus Buyers Guide
Posted:
January 13, 2012
By: ccsoya
29 comments
The Galaxy Nexus goes on sale today in Malaysia and naturally if you are planning to get one, you would want to know everything about the device before you plonk your hard-earned cash for the Google’s latest wonder device.
Naturally, we’re here to help. Welcome to the SoyaCincau.com Galaxy Nexus Buyers Guide. Listed here is probably everything you need and want to know about the Galaxy Nexus to help you make the right decision on whether to get one or not. If you are planning to get the Galaxy Nexus with a contract, we’ve got you covered as well with our plan-for-plan comparison between what Celcom and DiGi has to offer. We’ve even listed down all the Samsung Elite Partners (SEP) where you can get your Galaxy Nexus for easy reference.
So head on over to after the jump to know almost everything there is to know about the Galaxy Nexus in Malaysia.
Samsung Galaxy S tweaked “Value Pack” firmware leaked
Posted:
January 7, 2012
By: soyacincau
No comments
While the original Galaxy S users are still uncertain of Samsung’s decision on official Ice Cream Sandwich update, their software team has already started working on an update. According to the source, the Galaxy S firmware was dated 29th December which is quite recent.
Sammobile managed to grab hold of a leaked firmware which appears to be Android 2.3.6 update with several new enhancements. This is likely to be the value pack which was mentioned earlier on.
It offers Face Unlock, an updated Lockscreen from the Galaxy Note , a Photo Editor from Galaxy S II, faster auto-rotate response and ability to take photos while recording a video. Overall, this is no Ice Cream Sandwich OS but it brings the latest features of the Galaxy Note/Nexus to the original Galaxy S.
To download, head over to XDA Forums for the full details. Do note that this is not an official release endorsed by Samsung so flashing your firmware with this version is at your own risk.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office published a patent application by Apple titled Low Threshold Face Recognition. While face recognition is nothing new, the application of the technology on mobile devices is still pretty much a hit and miss affair. Google introduced Face Unlock in Ice Cream Sandwich, but as we have demonstrated, the feature is easily fooled with just a picture.
In its patent application Apple argues:
Most face recognition systems fall into one of two categories. A first category system tends to be robust and can tackle various lighting conditions, orientations, scale and the like, and tends to be computationally expensive. A second category system is specialized for security-type applications and can work under controlled lighting conditions. Adopting the first category systems for face recognition on consumer operated portable appliances that are equipped with a camera would unnecessarily use an appliance’s computing resources and drain its power. Moreover, as the consumer portable appliances tend to be used both indoor and outdoor, the second category systems for face recognition may be ineffective. Such ineffectiveness may be further exacerbated by the proximity of the user to the camera, i.e., small changes in distance to and tilt of the appliance’s camera dramatically distort features, making traditional biometrics used in security-type face recognition ineffective.
Apple attempts to address this problem with a different approach to facial recognition. Instead of the software tracking the entire face, Apple’s Low Threshold Face Recognition analyses certain features of the face. In this case Apple relies on the distance between the eyes and between the eyes and the mouth.
Galaxy Nexus: Calling all Bohemians
Posted:
December 17, 2011
By: soyacincau
No comments
The Galaxy Nexus lets you connect up to 10 people simultaneously with Google+ Hangouts. Earlier on they released a video showing off Hangouts with a bunch of beat boxers. This time around, Google is calling all Bohemians. Check out the video.
There’s also another commercial video on Face Unlock right after the break.
Chief Android designer responds to Face Unlock issue
Posted:
November 16, 2011
By: soyacincau
16 comments
Matias Duarte, the chief Android designer was on the first episode of The Verge show. During the show, he was asked about ICS Face Unlock feature which recently was proven to be unlocked with a photo.
His answer? Face Unlock on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is optimised for “common use cases”. He added that if someone kidnaps you, takes your face off and puts it on like John Woo’s Face Off Movie, it also could defeat Face Unlock. Basically it is just a small security measure to buy time for you to deactive and perform a remote wipe on your phone. For us, we prefer sticking to pattern unlock as our method of phone locking.
For those still having doubts on our face unlock video, someone by the name of Andrew McSweeney has repeated our unlocking test. He used the exact same set up, with a Galaxy Nexus which was programmed using his face and then unlocking it with a photo of himself on a Samsung Galaxy Note. Watch it after the break.
Clarification on the Ice Cream Sandwich Face Unlock video
Posted:
November 12, 2011
By: ccsoya
29 comments
UPDATE: The person manning the camera is Aman Firdaus from Amanz.my. He saw us doing the test a few times using the picture and face. He’s given permission for us to mention him here. Hopefully that will help clear some doubt. Thanks Aman!
UPDATE 2: Check out the response from Android Chief Designer Matias. Our Face unlock test was successfully repeated as well. Watch it here.
At the Samsung Galaxy Note regional launch in Jakarta last week, we had some hands on time with the yet to be released Google Galaxy Nexus and we got a question from @yauhui via Twitter asking if the Face Unlock feature in Ice Cream Sandwich can be tricked to recognise a picture of a face instead of an actual face. And so we went to test this out. We showed a Galaxy Nexus that has been setup to recognise an actual face. Then we showed the device a digital image of the same face but it was displayed on the screen of the Galaxy Note that we have on hand to see if we could trick Face Unlock to recognise the picture as well.
We took a video of this test and it went viral. We uploaded the video on November 9, and it currently has over 41,000 views and is featured on some of the most prominent tech sites in the world like TheNextWeb, Gizmodo, Huffington Post, TechCrunch, CNet, Phandroid, and Android and Me to name a few. The video was even featured on Yahoo! News globally. Our favourite is this one headline — “This Guy Just Exposed A Major Security Flaw In Ice Cream Sandwich”.
But the global coverage for our video is besides the point. What’s even more important is clarifying to everyone that the test — and the video — is not a trick. Some believed that we had programmed the Galaxy Note to recognise the picture and not the face. We must stress that this is not the case. The Galaxy Nexus in the video was the exact same unit we used to do our hands-on video where we originally set up the device to recognise a face and not a picture of a face.
Also, while we were doing the test, there were a few people watching including some of bloggers from the Malaysian contingent that went to Jakarta to with us for the regional launch of the Galaxy Note and a few reps from Samsung Malaysia and Samsung Indonesia. We did a couple of takes before deciding on the final video and those who were there saw that the phone recognised both the face and the picture of the face.