Face recognition technology used to protect handheld devices

• Omron's facial-recognition system uses a snapshot of your face to secure your handheld device.
• Omron has developed a face-recognition technology for use as a security system in camera-enabled cell phones and other handheld devices, the company says.
• The system is intended to provide an alternative to a password or fingerprint scanner for controlling access to the device, Omron says in a statement.
• Users first register their own face with the system by taking a picture of themselves.
• The company's "Okao Vision" engine converts the picture into a face-print that takes up about 1.5KB of storage space.
• To verify identity, users must take a picture of themselves again.
• It requires no additional hardware and works with image sensors already fitted into cell phones, so long as they are 100,000-pixel resolution or higher, says Takayuki Nakamura, a spokesman for Omron in Tokyo.
• Versions of the software are available for the Symbian, BREW, embedded Linux, and ITRON OS platforms, according to the statement.
• The application occupies about 450KB of the device's ROM and 370KB of RAM.
• Cell phones and PDAs featuring fingerprint sensors are already available from several vendors.
• Fujitsu offers a 3G (third-generation) cell phone in Japan with such a function and some models of Hewlett-Packard's IPaq PDAs also feature a fingerprint sensor.
• With such devices holding more personal information and offering the ability to perform wireless commerce, the need for secure access is increasing.
• Omron will demonstrate the system later this week at the Security Show 2005, which takes place at the Tokyo Big Sight exhibition center from March 2 until March 4.
• The company did not provide an estimate for how much the system would add to the manufacturing cost of a cell phone.