Apple applies for face, presence detection patent for mobile devices

The United States Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday published a patent application from Apple related to face and presence detection for iOS devices, which is expected to be one of the next chapters for mobile security. According to AppleInsider, a news and rumor website focusing on Apple, the patent is entitled "low threshold face recognition" which is a low-computation solution for quickly and accurately recognizing a user on iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and MacBook. Patently Apple, a blog focusing on Apple's latest intellectual properties, said that iOS devices would acknowledge the presence of the potential user by turning on the display and then trigger a subsequent process for recognizing the potential user's face. Currently, most face recognition systems tend to be robust ones working in various lighting conditions, orientations, scale and etc., which will require computing resources and drain battery life. There are also security-type face recognition systems working under controlled lighting conditions which could be ineffective due to factors like proximity of the user to the camera. Google's latest Android 4.0 operating system, codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich, already features face detection. But it is reported that the feature doesn't always work and can be bypassed by using a photograph of the phone's owner. Apple's solution would reduce the impact of lighting conditions and biometric distortions on an image, said AppleInsider, citing the filing. Apple said it would rely on a "high information portion" of a human face, such as eyes, mouth or the tip of a user 's nose. The "likely presence" of a human face in front of the camera would be captured through an "orange-distance filter" which would also be used to detect the potential user's skin tone and measure the distance of their face from the camera. Meanwhile, iOS devices could also be set to recognize faces of multiple users, presenting each user with a personalized configuration. According to AppleInsider, the patent application was first filed by Apple in June, 2009. Analysts said that the proposed technology could be Apple's next big innovation as it has record of redesign and give its unique appeal to products that have not caught on with the general public.