Oki middleware enables instant face recognition in camera phones

Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd announced that Vodafone K.K. has selected Oki's face recognition middleware for their mobile phones. Oki's Face Sensing Engine (FSE) enables instant face recognition using the camera on mobile phones to restrict access.

"Because the FSE has the industry's fastest authentication speed for mobile phones, an owner's face can be instantly verified," said Masao Miyashita, president of network systems company at Oki. "Going forward, we will provide such solutions to the embedded market for entertainment devices as well as to the mobile phone market by combining FSE with our other products."

According to the press release, the FSE is considered to be more convenient than password-protected phones, in which users need to input the data to release the lock. FSE can instantly verify the owner with the industry's fastest authentication speed, as soon as the owner looks into the camera. Since Oki's authentication method is less likely to be affected by brightness, verification can be done in various situations both indoors and outdoors.

The FSE also includes functions to detect facial characteristics, including the location of the eyes, eyebrows and mouth, and a function to track facial characteristics that calculates the changes in locations, which occur due to changes in facial expressions.

"We have been examining various authentication methods to prevent misuse of personal information when mobile phones are lost or stolen. With Oki's FSE, we provide low-cost, instant face recognition without compromising usability for our customers," said Hiroshi Ohta, head of product and service development at Vodafone.

FSE will be embedded in the Vodafone 904SH, which is planned for launch in late April 2006 and future Vodafone 3G mobile phones to be launched in Japan.