picturephoning.com: OKI adds face recognition to camera phones

October 20, 2005

OKI adds face recognition to camera phones

Oki Electric Industry is launching a technology that inexpensively adds face recognition to camera-equipped cellphones. Oki's Face Sensing Engine (FSE) "middleware" decodes facial images within 280mS on a 100MHz ARM9 processor, and can restrict access to mobile devices by recognizing their owners. Oki says the technology can help protect sensitive personal information such as phone numbers and email addresses from unwanted access.

FSE works by locating and mapping key facial features -- such as eyes, eyebrows, and mouth -- and adapts to changing facial conditions such as winking and smiling, according to Oki.

Earlier this year, Omron, announced that it had developed an imaging technology for camera-equipped handheld devices that uses face recognition to authenticate users.

[via tel&co < deviceforge]