14 DAY TRIAL // The face masks used by a growing number of the Chinese are rendering facial recognition systems across the country useless, according to a report.
Facial recognition is employed by various services in the country, including not only for mobile phones, but also for accessing bank accounts, ordering food, boarding a plane, and even receiving toilet paper in public restrooms.
But all these services are now much harder to use due to the face masks that millions are wearing, especially as the local authorities themselves recommended the Chinese to cover their faces when leaving the house.
Facial recognition useless
A report from Quartz cites people complaining that facial recognition is pretty much useless due to these face masks, and apparently mobile devices are among the ones generating the most frustration.
Devices like Apple iPhone and Huawei high-end smartphones come with facial recognition systems for unlocking and payments. And Chinese users claim that they need to remove the face masks every time they want to unlock their devices, as otherwise the mobile phones don’t accurately detect the face and thus blocks the access.
Huawei told the source that this is exactly the way a facial recognition system is supposed to work, as otherwise it would no longer be secure.
“There are too few feature points for the eyes and the head so it’s impossible to ensure security,” Huawei vice president Bruce Lee is cited as saying. ”We gave up on facial unlock for mask or scarf wearing [users].”
Of course, fingerprint sensors would have been a lot more useful even with a face mask, but the majority of phone manufacturers removed them in the favor of facial recognition systems. Apple, however, is reportedly interested in bringing it back to the iPhone with a 2021 model, albeit for the time being, this is believed to be a decision that’s still on the table, as the company is very committed to its facial recognition system going forward.