Ice Cream Sandwich's Face Unlock Feature May Be Tricked By Photos, Say Reports

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An interesting new report has emerged on one of Ice Cream Sandwich’s most interesting new features. Our own Eric Abent brought you the word on the Face Unlock feature, but along with some hiccups during its opening show, there’s another more unsettling problem showing up: it’s entirely possible that the early versions of Face Unlock could be beaten with a simple photograph.

Google reportedly picked up the facial recognition technology that went into Face Unlock from the purchase of a Carnegie Mellon spin-off known as PittPatt. But since the technology is still young, even Google reportedly admitted that logging in with nothing more than a still photo “might work”. Naturally, Google’s working on the system to the point where such a misstep wouldn’t be a part of the operation any longer, but still–this is something of a black eye to a newly-releasing operating system.

It was a bad enough misstep to see the demo of Face Unlock fail, and now to hear that there’s a possibility a still photo could serve the same as a regular picture really doesn’t help matters. Of course, it’s well worth remembering that it’s really only a possibility–some Android staffers have previously remarked that Face Unlock should be able to tell the difference between a still photo and the person of which the photo was taken–and of course there’s still some final tweaks that are likely going in as we speak ahead of final release, but still; it’s not the best of signs. How it will finally come out, though, is what really needs to be watched: if Face Unlock is routinely being cracked by pictures when it’s released, then there’s a problem. Until then, it’s only a possible problem.

So what do you guys think here? Figure any problems with Face Unlock will be settled by the time Ice Cream Sandwich rolls out in the coming weeks? Or is Face Unlock really more of a gimmick than a viable security measure? No matter what you think about this one, the comments section is waiting below for you to tell us, so head on down and fill us in!