14 DAY TRIAL // One of the new features that Google's Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich was unveiled with was Face Unlock, aimed at increasing the security of the new mobile OS.
Through Face Unlock, users could set the mobile phone to recognize their faces and allow the access the various functions of the device.
The Face Unlock tool was designed to recognize key individual differences between faces, so that people could set the handset to be unlocked when it recognizes a specific face.
It turns out that, although the technology does work like a charm when it comes to recognizing a user's face, it is not capable of telling whether the actual person is in front of it or not.
The reporter from Soyacincau.com managed to fool the Ice Cream Sandwich-based Galaxy Nexus using a photo taken with a Galaxy Note, and came up with the video embedded below as proof of that.
The maker of this video notes that the demo is legit, and that the new Google phone, although set up to recognize his face, could be unlocked using a simple photo as well.
“While some of you think that it is a trick and I had set the Galaxy Nexus up to recognize the picture, I assure you that the device was set up to recognize my face,” he explains.
“I have a few people there watching me do the video and if any one of them is watching this video I hope you can confirm that this test is 100% legit.”
However, there are some who say that he might have set up Galaxy Nexus to recognize his 2D face, and not the real, 3D variant.
One way or the other, chances are that Google's new Face Unlock feature might come to devices with a major flaw, and that it would not be able to increase the phone's security as much as Google would have us believe. More info on the matter will certainly emerge soon, so stay tuned.
