garyopa
01-02-2012, 08:26 AM
Future iOS Devices Will be Able to Recognise Their Owners?
http://www.maxconsole.com/maxconsole/contents/RKSID00000000000000000432/icon_xl.jpg
Apple may be looking to add facial recognition to iOS, indirectly backing up previous iTV reports that Apple wants users to be recognized across multiple devices.
It might be Holiday Season and New Years, but for Apple they are busy at work filing new patents, and the latest one is following the path they started in 2009 with the original 'first presence detection patent', and then later a new '3D face and object recognition patent', and the latest seems to point towards a 'fast processing system' to quickly see that the 'owner' of the device is standing in front of the unit, maybe on iPhone to get rid of the 'slide to unlock' and 'password' functions.
The Advantages of Apple's Invention
Particular implementations of the subject matter described in this specification could be configured to realize one or more of the following potential advantages. The techniques and systems disclosed in this specification could reduce the impact of lighting and emphasize skin variance. By acquiring images with the appliance's own image capture device, the approximate location and orientation of face features could be pre-assumed and could avoid the overhead of other face recognition systems. The disclosed methods could ignore face biometrics, and rather use feature locations to normalize an image of a test face. Further, the face recognition techniques are based on a simple, weighted difference map, rather than traditional (and computationally expensive) correlation matching.
The iOS Device Acknowledging Presence
Apple's patent FIG. 1 shown below illustrates an iPhone with its face side camera sitting in a dock. The iPhone could be turned off while the camera could remain on. Panel 100 shows a potential user who is approaching the iOS device sitting in its dock. In response to the iPhone detecting (120) that the potential user has stopped in front of its face side camera, the iPhone will be able to transition to a new state (shown in patent point 102') to acknowledge the presence and attention of the potential user.
In some implementations, the iOS device acknowledges the presence of the potential user by turning on the display. Further in response to detecting the presence of the potential user, the iOS device could trigger a subsequent process for recognizing the potential user's face.
Could be configured to Recognize Faces in your Family or Workplace
Furthermore, the iOS device could be configured to recognize faces of a predetermined group (including a small number) of users that may login on the iOS device and could present each user with a personalized configuration (see patent point 142). For example, to comply with such personalized configurations, the iOS device could modify screen saver slide shows or other appliance non-security preferences.
I also see that patent point 142 noted above shows us that we could be greeted with a message saying Hello! Although that will likely be optional, I'm curious as to how Apple will implement such a feature. Will they use a text only greeting or will they venture out and introduce a more personalized greeting from Siri (if you're an iCloud subscriber, that is). Depending on your view of talking devices, that could either be cool or creepy (ha!).
You can read the full patent summary over at the source link below!
NEWS SOURCES: iOS Face Detection (via) ItProPortal (http://www.itproportal.com/2012/01/02/future-ios-devices-will-be-able-recognise-their-owners/) and Apple Envisions Face Presense Detection (via) PatentlyApple (http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2011/12/apple-envisions-face-presence-detection-security-for-ios-devices.html)
http://www.maxconsole.com/maxconsole/contents/RKSID00000000000000000432/icon_xl.jpg
Apple may be looking to add facial recognition to iOS, indirectly backing up previous iTV reports that Apple wants users to be recognized across multiple devices.
It might be Holiday Season and New Years, but for Apple they are busy at work filing new patents, and the latest one is following the path they started in 2009 with the original 'first presence detection patent', and then later a new '3D face and object recognition patent', and the latest seems to point towards a 'fast processing system' to quickly see that the 'owner' of the device is standing in front of the unit, maybe on iPhone to get rid of the 'slide to unlock' and 'password' functions.
The Advantages of Apple's Invention
Particular implementations of the subject matter described in this specification could be configured to realize one or more of the following potential advantages. The techniques and systems disclosed in this specification could reduce the impact of lighting and emphasize skin variance. By acquiring images with the appliance's own image capture device, the approximate location and orientation of face features could be pre-assumed and could avoid the overhead of other face recognition systems. The disclosed methods could ignore face biometrics, and rather use feature locations to normalize an image of a test face. Further, the face recognition techniques are based on a simple, weighted difference map, rather than traditional (and computationally expensive) correlation matching.
The iOS Device Acknowledging Presence
Apple's patent FIG. 1 shown below illustrates an iPhone with its face side camera sitting in a dock. The iPhone could be turned off while the camera could remain on. Panel 100 shows a potential user who is approaching the iOS device sitting in its dock. In response to the iPhone detecting (120) that the potential user has stopped in front of its face side camera, the iPhone will be able to transition to a new state (shown in patent point 102') to acknowledge the presence and attention of the potential user.
In some implementations, the iOS device acknowledges the presence of the potential user by turning on the display. Further in response to detecting the presence of the potential user, the iOS device could trigger a subsequent process for recognizing the potential user's face.
Could be configured to Recognize Faces in your Family or Workplace
Furthermore, the iOS device could be configured to recognize faces of a predetermined group (including a small number) of users that may login on the iOS device and could present each user with a personalized configuration (see patent point 142). For example, to comply with such personalized configurations, the iOS device could modify screen saver slide shows or other appliance non-security preferences.
I also see that patent point 142 noted above shows us that we could be greeted with a message saying Hello! Although that will likely be optional, I'm curious as to how Apple will implement such a feature. Will they use a text only greeting or will they venture out and introduce a more personalized greeting from Siri (if you're an iCloud subscriber, that is). Depending on your view of talking devices, that could either be cool or creepy (ha!).
You can read the full patent summary over at the source link below!
NEWS SOURCES: iOS Face Detection (via) ItProPortal (http://www.itproportal.com/2012/01/02/future-ios-devices-will-be-able-recognise-their-owners/) and Apple Envisions Face Presense Detection (via) PatentlyApple (http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2011/12/apple-envisions-face-presence-detection-security-for-ios-devices.html)