Sign in / up

back to article Apple whispers how its face-fingering AI works

Apple has let us all in on a little secret: how its deep-learning-based face detection software works in iOS 10 and later. In a blog post published this week, the Cupertino giant described in a fair amount of detail how its algorithms operate. The biz revealed its code is based on OverFeat, a model developed by researchers at …

COMMENTS

Post your comment
House rules Send corrections
Add to 'My topics' unstar *
  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Works for me

    It is reliable and instantaneous, just like Touch ID was, so as far as I'm concerned there is no difference other than now being able to unlock it with wet fingers. Sure it is possible to fool given sufficient knowledge and effort, but there aren't any biometric systems that can't be fooled.

    Passwords aren't the panacea some people seem to make them out to be either. They aren't terribly secure on phones, because they are often used in public. It is pretty easy for someone standing behind or above you to record you entering your password, or for footage to be recorded either deliberately or not by ever-pervasive CCTV cameras. Even if you are paranoid enough to always shield that from view, a FLIR camera can record a heat map on your screen from your touches.

    Biometrics only need to be more difficult to fool than the difficulty of stealing someone's phone password. Maybe they aren't there yet, but there's a lot less difference in security than people make it out to be, because some are assuming passwords a lot more secure than they really are.

    Using biometrics means I never have to enter my password in public, so if I disable biometrics you won't be able to unlock my phone, whereas if you were using a password the odds are nearly 100% that someone who wanted to steal your password as you were entering has done so.

    13 4 Reply
    1. Martin-R
      Reply Icon

      Re: Works for me

      A week in and it's failed only once, and that was with strong lighting directly behind me. I've tried adding hats and sunglasses, even a scarf, and it seems to still let me in. Of course that could just mean it's not very secure too but plenty of other people have been interested in it this week and failed to get in! I guess the test will be to get my brother to try the hats and sunglasses too when I next see him!

      10 1 Reply
      1. Oh Matron!
        Reply Icon

        Re: Works for me

        A week in and it's just as slick as TouchID

        It fails every single morning when I wake up and squint at the phone because I'm so short sighted, but it fails in that instance because it's meant to.

        If the feds want you to unlock your phone by looking at it, just keep you eyes closed and it will prompt for a PIN :-)

        3 1 Reply
        1. DropBear
          Reply Icon

          Re: Works for me

          Yeah, about that - for some reason A Clockwork Orange comes to mind...

          5 0 Reply
        2. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Works for me

          If the Feds come knocking just disable Face ID via the simple sleep/wake button and volume button combo before you open the door for them and then it will require your password, which they can't force you to provide in the US.

          If the Feds burst in in a no-knock raid that doesn't leave you time to do this, they probably already have enough evidence to put you away for a long time Mr. Manafort, and your phone isn't going to make things worse for you only for your co-conspirators.

          2 0 Reply
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Works for me

      It probably fails about 15% of the times at the moment, especially in the office with the over head lighting. It’s nowhwre near as quick as TouchID on the iPhone 7 which borders on too quick.

      0 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        @AC

        Perhaps the overhead lighting in your office puts out a lot of IR interference which confuses it? Since it relies on IR I would expect strong IR sources to be an issue - I haven't tried it yet but probably having the sun directly behind you would be a problem as well.

        I have had only one failure, which was the first time I wore sunglasses. I took them off and it worked, and since then when I tried to unlock with sunglasses it worked. Not sure if that first time was an aberration or just something it learned the next time.

        I find it every bit as fast as Touch ID on my 6S plus. I pick up my phone and swipe up in one motion, and it unlocks right away.

        0 0 Reply
    3. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Works for me

      FYI - the article is about iOS's face detection, and not Face ID. See the correction. We regret the error.

      C.

      1 0 Reply
    4. DainB Bronze badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Works for me

      So someone at Apple realized that people tend to cover cameras of their laptops and phones to avoid being recorded and introduced feature that requires camera to be on all the time, otherwise you would not be able use your phone.

      That's clever.

      0 1 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Works for me

        It isn't on "all the time" it is only used to unlock your phone it doesn't constantly monitor it is you otherwise you couldn't hand your phone to someone else. And you don't have to use it, you can use a password on your phone if you want to tape over the front camera so they don't see your tinfoil hat.

        0 0 Reply
        1. DainB Bronze badge
          Reply Icon

          Re: Works for me

          Huh ? How phone "knows" you're looking at it and it need unlock ?

          0 0 Reply
  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why not use a childs toy as the face to unlock it?

    You could carry Mr Potato Head around and use that to unlock your phone.

    Problem solved and not only would you be super cool because you have an iPhone but you would be retro too.

    15 0 Reply
    1. IHateWearingATie
      Reply Icon
      Thumb Up

      That is the best suggestion I've seen so far. We need to get this out as the next 'cool thing' as I'd love to see hipsters around Old Street waving a plastic 80s He-Man at an iPhone to unlock it

      4 0 Reply
  3. trevorde Silver badge

    Works for identical twins

    Daughter has friends who are identical twins. Can't wait to see the chaos that Face ID is going to cause in that household!

    9 2 Reply
  4. Charlie Clark Silver badge

    Apple copies Google: customers are just lab rats

    Looks like this is mainly a way of testing the technology before selling it to interested parties: facial recognition for Starbucks, Walmart (fanbois don't shop there, Whole Foods, …

    6 5 Reply
  5. unwarranted triumphalism

    Another failure from crApple

    Why does anyone still buy their overpriced shiny toys?

    4 11 Reply
    1. Dave 126 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Another failure from crApple

      Speaking as an Android user: oh do piss off. If you think I'm being harsh, check UT's posting history.

      The new OnePlus 5T phone looks good, though. Released this week, for £450 6GB/64GB model, and £500 for the 8GB/128GB variant. Samsung AMOLED screen. It has a fingerprint sensor on the rear, but will face-unlock with a double tap. Whilst the OnePlus face-unlock doesn't work in the dark like Apple's IR system does, it seems a useful way of quickly unlocking the phone if it's sat on a desk or docked without picking it up. If the face unlock can be geo fenced so so fingerprint or code is required outside the home or office, that'd be secure enough.

      (Security levels: preventing CIA from reading your phone. Preventing a mugger using your phone. Preventing your colleagues from setting your wallpaper to a picture of Graham Norton for a grin. )

      4 0 Reply
      1. Dave 126 Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: Another failure from crApple

        So yeah, I'm very tempted by this new OnePlus, or else fuck it, I might just get an iPhone (probably a 6) instead and enjoy the rich ecosystem of peripherals, apps and regular and sustained updates, with fast processor, fast NAND and pretty good camera. What have the Romans ever done for us?

        Shane really, because I want the room scanning rear mounted active IR gubbins promised by Qualcomm (and rumoured by Apple) next year, but current Nexus is dying.

        2 0 Reply
  6. Rob D.
    Black Helicopters

    Clever but why

    Why was that strange, little man in trench coat and dark glasses waving an overly complicated Rorschach card in front of my phone?

    2 0 Reply
  7. Anonymous Coward
    Windows

    Blast from the past

    I had Windows Hello that unlocked my Lumia 950 by looking at it years ago.Of course, it wasn't 'magical and game-changing' as it was by MSFT

    6 1 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Blast from the past

      Don't mention the wireless charging on the 920 several years before that... :-)

      5 0 Reply
    2. NightFox
      Reply Icon

      Re: Blast from the past

      Yeah, I've got a Lumia 950 that work give me, and and iPhone X as my personal phone. The face unlock technology and capability on those 2 devices is worlds apart. The Lumia's is so slow and unreliable that I never use it and more, so it certainly wasn't magical and changed nothing for me. Apple's FaceID, on the other hand, has been virtually flawless in my experience and once you adjust to using it is probably the most unobtrusive way I've ever encountered of unlocking a phone or identifying myself.

      1 0 Reply
  8. }{amis}{
    Mushroom

    AI....

    Its stuff like this that stops me from fearing the robot Apocalypse....

    0 0 Reply
  9. Zilla

    At what point did the Apple fanboys take over thereg?

    Was a time when they would be laughed out of the shop.

    1 1 Reply
  10. gypsythief
    Joke

    Amazing Infinite Processing Power!

    "...several hundreds of gigaflops per second"

    So several hundreds of giga floating operations per second per second.

    Accelerating frantically, until at 15.67 times the theoretical maximum velocity of a sheep in a vacuum, its mass increases so much the phone collapses in on itself, forms a mini black-hole, and sucks the bushy beard right off the hipsters face!

    The horror! The lolz! The raw, unbridled, infinite processing power!

    2 0 Reply
  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    That's all very well ...

    But it's still a solution looking for a problem.

    One thousand quid, my arse.

    0 0 Reply
    1. gypsythief
      Reply Icon
      Trollface

      Re: That's all very well ...

      "One thousand quid, my arse"

      Did you really mean to write that? 'Cos a few money-bags MP's with a particular leaning might well take you up on that...

      0 0 Reply

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

Forgotten password ?

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like