Apple have invented, and been granted a patent for the unlocking of mobile devices such as iPhones by the use of facial recognition.
Instead of using the slide to unlock and/or a pin code thanks to apples innovation users will be able to unlock their device by simply looking at it.
Full information here:
http://www.patentlyapple.com/patentl...ng-system.html
Woe betide anyone found to be slavishly copying and ripping off Apples innovations.

That's a patent from 2012? Also Android has had this system since Android 4.0 ICS and it was recently "revamped" for Android 5.0 Lollipop. It's not as though this is a recent innovation either, I remember so Laptops doing this in the mid-2000s as well.

It isn't that good anyway. Fingerprint scanners are far better for unlocking purposes.

Like Siri it will have a sense of humour rather than be accurate like Now.
When it fails at the 2nd attempt it will get Siri to say 'did you remember to shave this morning'.

I just wish Apple would hurry up and invent wireless charging.

slightly worng link in the origianl post - it should be
Apple Granted face unlock patent - slightly more up to date link from March 31st, 2015
http://www.patentlyapple.com/patentl...etal-more.html

How can they patent something that's already in use...

I think pretty soon Apple will be announcing wonderful and magical wireless charging and all the people that buy Apple phones will wonder why nobody else had thought of it before.

Still, it is great to see the announcement today that Apple have invented face to unlock.

Hmm, interesting.

Application originally filed in March 2011 and pre-dates Google's face unlock patent application by 6 months.

There is wireless charging in the market place, but it's almost contact based. Apple recently patented a distance based i.e. a whole desk or whole room based wireless charging system.

Also i doubt this face lock will be used in a phone or tablet.... read in to that as you wish.

The iCar?

You get in and it starts the engine and says "good morning Michael".

At which point I would say.. "Who the hell is Michael"????
Hahahahahahahaha
LOL

This man wouldn't though.
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images.../BAmdIaM8.jpeg

I looked a bit like that at 25!

Wait!!..... How cool would it be if Apple went for a change of name.....

In 2016 I could be upgrading to the Knight Industries Two Thousand iKITT 7.

EDIT: I award myself 10 points for that!

software patents are just stupid, they shouldnt be granted.

Microsoft announced Hello last week, which is a similar system that uses IR cameras for facial recognition.

I read into that, iCar and iMac.
Having it on iOS devices would be confusing what with the current Touch ID.
Doubly so when Apple Pay launches.
Apple want Apple Pay to just work. Two forms of authentication would certainly confuse most of my customers.

It's like déjà vu! Apple applauds itself for inventing technologies that already exist. Okay, in this instance they haven't patted themselves on the back, but they have tweaked and then patented an existing technology.

I remember the old face recognition cameras you could fake with a picture of the person in front of the camera lol

But that's the point they don't invent new technologies. That's not where their strength lies.
What Apple are totally the best at it taking a tech that doesn't quite work as it should, throwing shed loads of R&D at it and making it work properly.
Take Touch ID for example. Fingerprint readers have been around for ages but they were always crap. Now you have the 5s, 6 and 6+ with a reader that actually works 99 times out of a hundred and at any angle and direction.
I was very dubious before I had to set up some of my customer's iPhone 5s' and then it was like, WOW... it works..... every time...

With Apple Pay it's the same. Google have had it for ages but it's flawed and even hardened Android fans have admitted Apple pay combined with Touch ID is where it's at!

Don't get me wrong, I hate all this Apple vs Google crap that goes on and I'm not anti Android at all. Just saying Apple are always misunderstood in that they are always expected to bring out something new when in fact what they do is add a feature that didn't really work properly before but now, does.

Well they have invented a few things.. then they have also bought into new inventions no one else has but I agree, they take good ideas that have been implemented badly and make them work correctly.

Worked every time for me when i started using it when it came out. That was until i got bored of the novelty factor after a few days.

Oh and of course it didn't work in the dark!

It just makes me laugh when we see an Apple advert and they sell something as a revolution. Take Siri, for example. They marketed that like it was this brand new service that no one else offered, yet it had been available for years on other devices.

I'm not anti-Apple, but I do believe they over charge for their devices compared to other brands and Samsung is heading very much the same way.

Because as someone else has pointed out, they patented it 4 years ago. People on here seem to be confusing the filing of a patent with the grant of a patent.

http://www.techeye.net/business/belg...ftware-patents

"Another plaintiff, ESOMA founder and chairman Pieter Hintjens, added that, “in 2007 we showed how this plan would raise costs by at least four times."

Probably true now, common sense patents for sliding your finger, predictive text, phone numbers in a web page, using a camera for anything practical etc etc likely making up, by far, the major cost.