Apple Has Face Recognition Plans for iPad and iPhone

Maura · Dec 29, 2011

A new patent application unearthed by AppleInsider has revealed that Apple has been looking into the possibility of using the forward-facing camera of an iPhone or iPad to recognize an individual persons face, enabling the iPhone or iPad to then automatically customize apps, settings and other features to suit the users own preferences. The patent application is called Low Threshold Face Recognition, and presents with a low-computation way of recognizing a users face.

One of the main benefits of such a system would be that it would enable many different users to share the same device, with each user being able to customize the iPad or iPhone to suit their taste, using special unique wallpaper, apps, and so on. This would all happen without the tedious task of having to log on with an individual password, as soon as the users face was recognized by the device. The patent goes on to explain how the facial recognition software could be designed to ensure that it did not put too much of a drain on battery life, by analyzing a high information portion on a person's face, such as eyes, nose or mouth, rather than having to analyse the whole face.

The patent was first filed by Apple in June 2009, and is the work of Robert Mikio Free.

Source: AppleInsider | Apple's future iPhones & iPads could automatically personalize via face recognition

iHolophyte · Dec 29, 2011

They can't even get Siri to work correctly. Imagine the shouting and jumping up and down this would cause also should it not work correctly?
"My face app doesn't recognise me at all" would be the first forum topic. Although I think it sounds pretty space age and I like it.

iHolophyte

jkhonea · Dec 29, 2011

Siri has actually been working good for me. What are you finding with it?

iHolophyte · Dec 29, 2011

jkhonea said:
Siri has actually been working good for me. What are you finding with it?

Not me I haven't got the 4s, but according to many on here it doesn't work.

iHolophyte

jkhonea · Dec 29, 2011

iHolophyte said:
Not me I haven't got the 4s, but according to many on here it doesn't work.

iHolophyte

Gotcha. I've actually had very good luck with it. It's been the best at transcribing voice to text of anything I've seen yet. The biggest let down of it is that it does need a data connection to work. So if you are in a dead cell with no wifi, no Siri. But that's only happened to me once. Other than that, it has even done an impressive job of catching odd names from my address book and correctly entering them into appointments. I'm loving it.

iHolophyte · Dec 29, 2011

jkhonea said:
Gotcha. I've actually had very good luck with it. It's been the best at transcribing voice to text of anything I've seen yet. The biggest let down of it is that it does need a data connection to work. So if you are in a dead cell with no wifi, no Siri. But that's only happened to me once. Other than that, it has even done an impressive job of catching odd names from my address book and correctly entering them into appointments. I'm loving it.

Yeah I'd love Siri but I'm not gonna go out and buy a iPhone 4s just for the privilege. Siri is a boys toy to me. More gadgets the better (laughs out loud)

iHolophyte

jkhonea · Dec 29, 2011

Oh I agree. I wouldn't upgrade the 4 for it at all. My wife has the 4 and the only reason I got the 4S is because I was tired of the Android OS. I switched from an Inc 2, which I enjoyed, don't get me wrong, to the iPhone 4S and absolutely love it. I have a basically yearly rotation with my two lines, so I'll grab the 5 when it comes out next year, if it is the upgrade I think it will be, and shift the 4S to my wife.

iHolophyte · Dec 29, 2011

jkhonea said:
Oh I agree. I wouldn't upgrade the 4 for it at all. My wife has the 4 and the only reason I got the 4S is because I was tired of the Android OS. I switched from an Inc 2, which I enjoyed, don't get me wrong, to the iPhone 4S and absolutely love it. I have a basically yearly rotation with my two lines, so I'll grab the 5 when it comes out next year, if it is the upgrade I think it will be, and shift the 4S to my wife.

Like ya style. You get the 5 (or what ever it will be called) and you pass the 4s to the wife. Priorities are right there fella 😜

iHolophyte

Wildfire · Dec 29, 2011

I hope it works better than the facial recognition I have on my ASUS N50Vseries. Either my face is too ugly and is rejected or the software just doesn't get it If I waited for the FR to unlock my laptop, I could have breakfast in the meantime. So I do it the old-fashioned way: Enter my PW

BTW Neither does the Fingerprint recognition work. I think I worked too much and all the nice swirls are gone. FBI rejects my fingerprints routinely when I need to send them in for a CC license.