RecognizeMe - Facial Recognition Unlock

[Joshua Tucker]

Speculation on facial recognition iOS software has been floating around ever since the release of the iPhone 4. Rumors of Apple buying small companies (e.g. Polar Rose) with the purpose of creating facial recognition technology went rampant the summer of the iPhone 4 release. But to this day, no report has been stated or released the public from Apple about their progress. For all of us who are avid jailbreak community enthusiasts realize that any opening in this regard will soon be filled if Apple doesn't step up the game. An upcoming application will add the first facial recognition functionality to the iDevice.



RecognizeMe, an application by Chris Simpson (@apocolipse269), allows you to unlock your iDevice using a biometrics facial scan. After training your face in the application, you are able to either unlock your iDevice with the passcode or facial recognition. The application allows you to make multiple trainings to help the recognition go faster. The intensity of the verification threshold can be changed within the application as well (e.g. 0% = Not Secure, 75% = Fairly Secure). When the passcode on your iDevice is enabled, RecognizeMe becomes an option after setting it up accordingly. At the lockscreen, when you slide to unlock, the passcode comes up and at the top it gives you an option to use RecognizeMe. Overall, the application is simple and works well. Due to its use of the front facing camera, it is only compatible with the iPod/iPhone 4 (or any iDevice with a front facing camera). When it hits Cydia, it will be $6.99 for the first 3 weeks and then $9.99 after.

In the process of obtaining a .deb and getting this article all squared away, I asked Chris a few questions about RecognizeMe:

JOSH: How long did it take for you to create a working version of RecognizeMe?
CHRIS: It took me about 2 1/2 months to build a working version of RecognizeMe.

JOSH: Were you working on this project solo or do you have team members/other developers that helped you out?
CHRIS I coded and designed this application completely myself but used a few close friends on IRC to test the application each step of the way.

JOSH: What part was most difficult about developing this application?
CHRIS: The most difficult part was all the processing. This application does an INTENSE amount of it. Good news is, due to the fact that it requires a front facing camera, I could optimize it specifically for ARMv7 (as 3GS + has ARMv7), which means I could take advantage of some ARMv7 NEON SIMD instructions for image processing to speed things up (it got complicated and I'm using assembly).

JOSH: Are you planning any other implementations with RecognizeMe in the near future (such as individual recognitions for certain applications)?
CHRIS: I'm planning on making an Appstore version that is a "Secure Notes" type application.


Also, Chris made a suggestion to make the recognition go smoother and faster. A key note to be wary of is proper light is important for quick recognition:

Make 3 training sets, 1 with low light, 1 with medium light, and 1 with bright light (not too bright). This makes biometrics for 3 levels of light which usually covers most cases. More sets has slower training but better recognition. A lower threshold makes it faster with better recognition but more people can get in.

Follow Chris Simpson on Twitter for more information regarding RecognizeMe and his other developments.

Name: RecognizeMe
Author: apocolipse
Price: $6.99 (first 3 weeks), $9.99

The video below showcases myself using a pre-release version of RecognizeMe:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoq_IiYk0Pc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoq_IiYk0Pc[/ame]

Source(s): Chris Simpson, CNET

[kingbijan]

thats sick when is this coming out boss

[NikeJS]

I'm totally in for this

[njosnavelin]

Cool post Josh. Can you tell me if changing the threshold changes the identification time (ie. lower threshold = quicker id) or is the id rate limited by the hardware?

Cheers

[dee9299]

i have been one of the beta testers since day one.....this is an amazing app .......its well worth every penny....if any of you have any questions feel free to ask..

[neildunne]

Will it work with iPad 2 and its front-facing camera?

[dee9299]

Will it work with iPad 2 and its front-facing camera?

Yes it will as soon as the ipad 2 jailbreak comes out....

[abhad]

This sounds great!

[newyor]

Ok, what happens if I have a photo of your face (from Facebook or whatever), can I unlock your iPhone using this photo?

[dboone21]

That's really cool. Seems just a little bit too slow to be something you would use normally - unless you have trouble keeping your passcode away from other people.

[Cer0]

Pretty nifty but agree with it being slightly slower than just punching in the numbers.

[Endscrypt]

Good Q, Cer0

[bluaeon]

how about a toggle to turn it ON and OFF on the settings.

[JHH09]

how about a toggle to turn it ON and OFF on the settings.

why would you need a toggle to turn it on and off if you can just type in your password

BTW THIS LOOKS F**KING SICK

[viriiguy]

Facial Recognition is a BAAAD idea. As was stated already, you CAN get past it with just a picture of the person. We experimented with several forms of network authentication for a particular client of mine. One of the methods we tested was facial recog.

It was the least secure of the methods we tried and was able to be fooled around 85% of the time. Iris recognition is much better, but requires special hardware to work efficiently. It would still be beatable with a high enough resolution image of someone's eye.. But that is a bit harder to acquire.

[broncosi]

I agree, plus why would you pic an option to open your iphone that takes over 30 seconds when you can just type in a 4 digit code, or use the droid unlock, or just slide to unlock?? This is basically a parody app of no use. The only useful purpose i could see for this would be if iphones were given out as company phones, and we all know blackberry rules that area.

[iFiend]

I agree, plus why would you pic an option to open your iphone that takes over 30 seconds when you can just type in a 4 digit code, or use the droid unlock, or just slide to unlock?? This is basically a parody app of no use. The only useful purpose i could see for this would be if iphones were given out as company phones, and we all know blackberry rules that area.

+1

[feidhlim1986]

Ok, what happens if I have a photo of your face (from Facebook or whatever), can I unlock your iPhone using this photo?

Well if I'm friends with you on Facebook, I would be friends with in in real life too so I wouldn't really expect you to be stealing my iPhone now would I?

This would be quite secure against someone who steals your iPhone. They more than likely won't know your name to google you, and therefore find a picture of you.

[scroogelives]

On my shopping list!! Apple seem to be slow, it's like they want the devs to do the hard work than steal it! Lol

[steve-z17]

Its more of a "cool/fun" way to unlock your phone; its definitely faster to type a pass-code in. This is pretty sweet though, great job.