Dr. Philip Tresadern from the University of Manchester has plenty of time on his hands because he took a Nokia N900 and programmed it to identify faces via the front facing camera that’s traditionally been used for video calls. Using your face, neat things such as authenticating who you are can be accomplished. What the Doctor doesn’t show is how easy a system such as this can be compromised with a simple photo of the target, held up over the attacker’s face, which then confuses the system all together.
Mobile security is a hot field to be in, especially since today more and more of our lives are stored inside the easy to lose devices that we should be keeping in our pockets at all times, but somehow they mysteriously end up being left at the pub, or worse yet find their way inside of a toilet bowel. Now I’m not discrediting the research Tresadern has done, I’m just saying it’s a bit … how should I say this without getting yelled at by open source Nazis … it’s a bit pointless.
Apple is taking a different route all together, patenting a system that can detect who you are simply by the way you hold your mobile phone. Using advanced sensors, a future iPhone can even identify you by your heart beat.
With RIM, Nokia, Apple, and almost everyone else offering a remote wipe feature, the detection of an intruder is going to become an attractive feature to have in the future. Whether it be via your heart beat, or your face, or an incorrect PIN code, who knows what the future will bring. I’m voting for fingerprint scanners, and RIM seems to agree. Shouldn’t be so hard to put one the back of a mobile phone, plus it’s notoriously difficult to trick those systems.
[Via: The Nokia Blog]