When considering new, hi-tech or even sci-fi types of stealthy alternatives to traditional typing in of passwords, many developments have surfaced recently:

• fingerprint recognition — actually, quite old stuff, hardware is very demanding if reliability and tight security are at stake. Can be easily defeated by using an authentic fingerprint of a real pass holder. Or his or her finger, as the last resort;
• eye retina can be just as unique as an individual’s fingerprint. However, it’s also beatable if the intruder gets a good hi-res photograph of that retina of an authenticated individual. Or just his eye, when in an emergency;
• face recognition as a password. Recent debacle with ICS phone rejecting Andy Rubin’s mug at that ground breaking ICS presentation tells us it’s still a joke for consumer grade devices. Can be defeated by photographs any day, or the individual in question sedated heavily next to you;
• finger gestures on a sensor screen. On legacy devices, like signing off your purchase, or a receipt, it’s similar to a digital signature. But this time, in Windows 8, it’s more fun, even if Microsoft Developers’ blog puts a lot of serious calculations and figures behind it.

On the last one,  however, according to the inventor of RSA’s SecurID token, Kenneth Weiss, he doesn’t seem to think that this is “serious security”.

His argument is that those viewing from afar will be able to discern and even video tape the user making their gestures, thus figuring out the correct “picture”.

Sure, it could be just one step, or stage in tightening up the security of access to the device, and good old typing of a long quasy-random alphanumerical password might be still of much help. Just don’t forget about keyloggers and other password-stealing software swirling around you and your secure system.

The post Windows 8 To Have Picture Gesture Passwords appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Remember all the spy movies where protagonists had to scan their retinas, or even their entire face to get into some secret base or vault? With 3M Cogent’s new development, we can now bring that high security feeling into our living rooms

Bio Trust is a software that allows PC users to log in to their computers using a password they carry around with them at all times and impossible to forget: their faces. The application integrates facial recognition technology, replacing old school password systems currently in use by PC owners to log in.

Once you have installed the program you only need to take a few photos of your face via the webcam and then restart the computer, PC World informs. As soon as the PC has recognized your face, it will run your user account automatically which means you can say farewell to passwords.

Bio Trust also integrates a native password administrator which surveys your log in to various sites and allows you to use biometric authentication. The app is compatible only with Internet Explorer for the time being. 3M Cogent has informed that the program will also offer support for Firefox and Chrome in the near future.

With social networking sites on the rise however, using the software for critical situations might just prove too risky, as anyone can look through our pictures, take one, and use it to simulate our “presence” there. Or worse, kidnap you and make a silicon copy of your face.

Bio Trust is available for purchase for 9 Euros and it requires 300MB for installation. Tests have shown that the software does not slow down your computer.

The post Bio Trust uses people’s faces as passwords appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Remember how touchscreen passwords can be lifted and all that? No matter how good a password you think you’re setting, it might not be good enough. However, your face is your face.

We’ve already seen the concept of facial recognition in laptops, webcams, and even the Xbox 360 Kinect peripheral. It’s only a natural progression to bring it to phones too. That’s how the Nokia N900 came into the picture at the University of Manchester in the UK.

The prototype “quickly locks and tracks 22 facial features in real time” using the front-facing camera on the N900. This “Active Appearance” modeling was developed by the Mobile Biometrics project. Check out the video and see for yourself whether face-tracking is the future of smartphone verifications.

Face Verification (2008-Present) Dr. Philip A. Tresadern [University of Manchester]
Nokia N900 does real-time face tracking for verification (video) [Engadget]

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Facial Recognition Cat Door

I’ve never owned a cat, but I know a few people who have. They have also told me that their outdoor cats can oftentimes come back home with a little gift in their mouths. Are you tired of finding dead mice and birds on your kitchen floor? This might be the gadget for you.   What you see here is a face recognition cat door, a rewired version of the Cat Mate door by Quantum Picture. It looks and works much like a regular cat door, giving your furry friend free access to the outside world, but it comes with a nice technological enhancement.

As you can quite plainly see, there is a small camera that takes a look at your cat’s profile. If Kitty comes home alone, the door latch opens and she can wander back to her bed in the corner. However, if she happens to be dangling something which once roamed the wild from her mouth, the door won’t open.   The assumption is that your cat will eventually learn that bringing home “gifts” is not appreciated. Alternatively, they may learn that this door is not the best way to get back inside.

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