Improved facial-recognition technology means you’ll soon be able to forget about remembering a bunch of passwords. Your phone and other gadgets will know your face, and your security will be improved as a result.
Jim Barry, digital answer man for the Consumer Technology Association, says the technology has been in development for some time now. “Facial recognition is something that is definitely coming,” he predicts. “It’s much closer now in wireless phones, smart phones.”
The mapping of your face will be detailed enough so that, say, a new haircut won’t confuse the program. Other changes, including glasses or especially sunglasses, could be a different matter, Barry points out. “Maybe if you put on a lot of weight, or if you grew a beard, or shaved a beard, or started wearing eyeglasses,” he says, “you might have to change [the setting]. But,” he adds, “that’s certainly much less frequent[ly] than folks now change passwords.”
Your cell phone, Barry says, wouldn’t have to pick you out of a crowd. “It’s not like the facial recognition you see on TV programs and spy [movies] where they are actually comparing a face of somebody they saw in the train station to millions and billions of other faces,” he says. Once your facial settings are stored, your device will be able to tell, yes or no, if it’s you who is trying to log on.
“It’s coming sooner than you think,” Barry concludes. So smile.