Face Unlock or facial recognition in smartphones is one of the most common features. It is the second type of biometric security introduced in smartphones after fingerprint sensors. But did you know face unlock existed in phones way back in 2011 also? Let me tell you about how face unlock evolved!
Face recognition in Android 4!
Face unlocking tech was first introduced in Android 4 way back in 2011. Shocked right? Many of you who used android 4 when it was introduced, may not even know about this. It was looked like a revolutionary feature at that time. Unfortunately, it was very poor and was just a geek feature to show your friends. It could be unlocked very easily by using a picture of the person.
That’s because it never used any sensors. When you registered your face, android would take a 2D picture of your face and store it. Then, when you tried to unlock the phone, it would just check your face with the picture. This is why it was terribly unsecure. It was cool to have nonetheless, who knew this feature would evolve like it did today?
Fingerprint sensors kill face unlock!
After its release, face unlock was not popular due to security reasons. Patterns, Pins, and passcodes were the only secure way to unlock your phone. It was until September 2013 that it all changed. On 20th September 2013, Apple launched the iPhone 5S. The biggest hot feature of the iPhone 5S was a fingerprint scanner.
Apple called it TouchID. It was simple to use. You would just have to press your thumb on the home button like you normally would, and the phone would be unlocked. TouchID was incredibly secure unlike face unlock on android 4. It never stored or sent fingerprint info to the cloud. All the data was stored locally on the device itself.
Read the complete article with Apple's FaceID and future of biometrics on - http://kirat.in/tech/face-unlock-in-phones-2019/
