Apple's New Face ID Biometric System Works in the Dark and When Your Face is Obscured by Hats and Beards

[SHirsch999]

GOOD TO KNOW that my significant other cannot open my phone while I'm sleeping!

My wife knows my passcode.

 

[M2M]

Gesture control is coming. You’ll wave your hands and yes use Siri. She’s getting smarter. It’ll all makes sense in the future.
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Yea I ageee. Maybe iOS 12 revamp it. Or iOS 11.3

Missed the gesture control part in the announcement. As it stands now there is minor benefit and the example you mentioned is invalid. Yes maybe when iOS 12 is there and the iPhone XS or X2 with gesture control. Then. Maybe.

 

[maine82]

Just tell her you passcode, then. Problem solved.

Don’t give him any ideas. The less people attempting to buy it on launch day the greater my chances of getting one.

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

Apple's New Face ID Biometric System Works in the Dark and When Your Face is Obscured by Hats and Beards

@jclo, I believe "hat" and "beard" should each be singular to align with the singular "face." Right now it reads as if a single person wears multiple hats or has multiple beards at once....at least to me.

 

[jamesrick80]

Doesn't matter .....

As soon as Apple made you have to swipe up after Face ID unlocked you...the whole concept was completely ruined. Who wants a slower more inconvenient method known as face ID? Bring Touch ID back.....I'm sure it will return next year when these issues erupt.

 

[groovyd]

really curious how it differentiates between a real face and one of those Hollywood models, unless it also requires some bit of facial motion during detection.

 

[ErikGrim]

Am I the only one who had a Sony Handicam with nightvision as a kid? I noticed many things become more transparent when using an IR camera—sunglasses being one of them.

Yes. Sunglasses.

 

[alpha076]

I get a feeling that next year Apple will be able to put touch id under the glass and will offer face id as alernative.

 

[IJ Reilly]

@jclo, I believe "hat" and "beard" should each be singular to align with the singular "face." Right now it reads as if a single person wears multiple hats or has multiple beards at once....at least to me.

We need to wear multiple hats and grow multiple beards to be a hipster these days. One of each just isn't enough anymore.

 

[Someirishguy]

I'll believe it when I see it. An incorrect scan once a week is enough of a convenience for me to never purchase.

Touch ID fails for me more than once a week, especially if my hands are a bit wet. Have you never placed your thumb to unlock and been required to try again?

 

[elistan]

This logic confuses me. The new phone that I don’t have is way better than my current phone, but the newer phone coming out is barely better than the new phone that already blows my current phone away, so I’m going to keep my vastly inferior phone. Huh?

My one year old 7 from work is plenty good enough to make getting an 8 not especially urgent. My personal 5S works perfectly well enough not to justify the cost of an X, so that I can wait for the XI, or order an X in the spring if Apple releases an iOS update that allows for multiple faces.

 

[Tech198]

FaceID looks good,, but TouchID is fine for me..

I get a feeling that next year Apple will be able to put touch id under the glass and will offer face id as alernative.

I'm surprised they couldn't do it with FaceID but i guess it has the same drawbacks Apple ran up against with trying to implement TouchID under the display.

 

[ErikGrim]

Erm fingerprint scanner fails about once every few days for me (greasy fingers, greasy home button etc). And i remember it was MUCH worse when it first came out. But people still adapted to it and got used to it.

I have this odd feeling that I'd be more frustrated when FaceID fails than when TouchID can't read my hot sauce stained greasy fingers. That I can understand.

 

[carrrrrlos]

When I’m riding my motorcycle and want to pull over to check directions, I’ll have to take my sunglasses and helmet off to activate FaceID. Or when I’m on the hill during the winter and want to pull my iPhone out to take a shot, I’ll also have to take my helmet and goggles off. Or even better, I’ll just have to stare at my iPhone in the mornings instead of just picking it up and placing my finger on it. All so I can look at an almost edge to edge screen that has an annoying notch on one side. Fantastic.

 

[Tech198]

I have this odd feeling that I'd be more frustrated when FaceID fails than when TouchID can't read my hot sauce stained greasy fingers. That I can understand.

Just one step so say,, clean your hands first, that's all.

 

[Vanilla35]

Obviously it does. Do you really think Apple would release a security feature that they didn't spend an immense amount of time protecting one's privacy and security over something they didn't have complete faith in?

Yes. Because they weren't planning on implementing this feature full force until they realized the in-display finger print reader wasn't panning out due to low yields in manufacturing.
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I'll believe it when I see it. An incorrect scan once a week is enough of a convenience for me to never purchase.

This is the mentality many should have. I still doubt this thing's reliability when the phone is not completely parallel to your face. I also share those thoughts with sunglasses on, sunglasses and hat, halloween mask, etc. There are lots of things that you may not think would be a big deal, but if for all these little occasions all of a sudden you have to put in your password every time due to limitations, it may become a huge PITA.

 

[macTW]

Seems like there are some other websites that also are trying to spread FUD:
ArsTechnica-
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/09/face-id-on-the-iphone-x-is-probably-going-to-suck/

The Verge-
https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/9/12/16296912/apple-iphone-x-face-id-demo-fail

The New Scientist-
https://www.newscientist.com/articl...ace-id-is-a-terrible-way-to-secure-your-data/

Now lets examine your collective ability to comprehend a statement:

EdT:
'It failed at the demo. Even if there is a valid reason they need to get 3rd party sites to verify it really does work as quickly as possible.'

Perception is frequently reality. If Apple was to show a video of 10,000 people having no trouble whatsoever using Face ID a lot of people would say its rigged. Quite frankly, even if a neutral site tests it and it passes there will be some people who say that Apple bought them out.

Maybe whoever set the phones for Craig looked at the unit a couple of times during setup and locked it out. Not a failure of the system but it still made for bad tv.

Maybe some other valid reason caused it to lock out.

Maybe it just didn't work.

Viewers don't know. ESPECIALLY people who don't live and breathe Apple products. What they saw was a feature not work, and the need to use a backup phone. Any explanation by Apple about why will be viewed with at least a little suspicion, even if it's the honest to god truth. And most people didn't watch the presentation at all. Most people never do. All they will see is a 15 second clip of the phone not unlocking and then there will be commentators who immediately pop in after the clip to make fun of both Apple and Apple fans. Those commentators don't care at all if what they are presenting is accurate. They're there to get laughs and poke fun at people, not investigate.

As a matter of fact, I did watch the keynote. Since there is a very large group who like to make fun of Apple and bad mouth the company, I knew as soon as it happened that this would be presented in the worst possible way at least in some media. I linked to a few sites above, but I would have had no trouble linking to a lot more. Anytime Apple has any difficulty there are those who delight in it. It's probably a long thread on Reddit (I haven't looked yet but I will), and I know it's all over Twitter and people are sharing it on Facebook.

Most of all, I'd like to thank everyone who is insulting anyone who has the temerity to point out that this didn't look good, or even -gasp- express that they prefer using Touch ID. Especially since other than insults you don't really explain why your position is a valid point of view. And we all know that insulting people is the way to win them over.

Edit: There are some posts poking fun (and more) on Reddit but there is also an actual discussion of both 'is it reliable and/or is Touch ID better'.

We know what happened. Anyone who saw the keynote did.

"Enter passcode. Your passcode is needed to turn on face ID."

The meaaage that displays after boot up.


Why don't people see this?

 

[elistan]

Joking aside, does anyone know the power spectrum of the infrared laser that constantly exposes the user's face?

This because I cannot find anything about this on the iPhone X technical specifications.

There is a NIH report published at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3116568/
"Effect of infrared radiation on the lens"
Finding: The protein of eye lens is very sensitive to IR radiation which is hazardous and may lead to cataract.

Given the constant use of iPhones, and now FaceID, your joke about face scanning 24/7 may be no joke.

It appears that study (poor rabbits) used a 250 Watt heat lamp. That's the kind of thing you'll find in a commercial kitchen. I doubt it has any relavence to the iPhone, which is more like a tv remote, and probably a good bit weaker than a regular flashlight.

 

[steve knight]

I wonder if we will see apps that let you scan items on 3d and use that to 3d print something?

 

[elistan]

@jclo, I believe "hat" and "beard" should each be singular to align with the singular "face." Right now it reads as if a single person wears multiple hats or has multiple beards at once....at least to me.

I think the 'you' in 'your' is plural? But saying your instead of, say 'yall's' is more elegant.

 

[macfacts]

I doubt this is a big issue, but in some of the demo videos after the show, they showed someone pointing the phone at the face of the owner and unlocking the phone. I guess a thief could steal your phone, point it at your face for a fraction of a second and take off with your unlocked phone.

The vertical dual cameras are a dead give away

 

[Russell L]

Hmmmm....wondering if FaceID will work for me, as I have very squinty eyes (especially when outdoors) and I wear glasses (including prescription sunglasses).

 

[austinted]

I'm wondering about unlocking a phone that's mounted in a dock in the car. The fingerprint reader is very easily used without taking eyes off the road. FaceID needs to be no worse than glancing down at the radio.

 

[uwdude]

It failed at the demo. Even if there is a valid reason they need to get 3rd party sites to verify it really does work as quickly as possible.

That's what I was going to say, this article verifies that it takes 2 scans and then gives the passcode required message, just like what happened on stage, so it really was a Face ID fail. The only other explanation is if that phone had not been trained for Federighi's face, which would seem an unlikely blunder. I think we are going to have to watch closely as people get these in their hands to see how reliable it really is, and whether that was an unusual one-off.

Editing my answer to add: Mossberg did a detailed review of the facial recognition and Iris scanning on the S8- I'm hoping even though he is semi-retired that he might review this on the iPhone for comparison.

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

I think the 'you' in 'your' is plural? But saying your instead of, say 'yall's' is more elegant.

If you were plural, then "face" would need to be "faces" and "is" would need to be "are." Unless you're saying we all share one face, but multiple beards?