By Tripp Mickle and Robert McMillan
CUPERTINO, Calif. -- Apple Inc.'s new iPhone X ties the future
of its flagship device to facial-recognition technology that could
alter how people interact with their gadgets -- if the company can
get it to work right.
Facial-recognition is the most prominent new feature in the
10th-anniversary iPhone Apple unveiled on Tuesday. Called Face ID,
it will be the primary tool to unlock the nearly $1,000 iPhone X,
which is scheduled to start shipping Nov. 3. A camera system with
depth sensors project 30,000 infrared dots across a user's face
that computing systems use to create a mathematical model that is
stored securely on the phone. Each time users hold the device to
their faces, the technology verifies the mathematical model before
unlocking the phone in an instant.
As with other new smartphone technologies it has adopted in the
past, Apple isn't the first to use facial recognition. But it hopes
to be the best, popularizing a technology that has had a mixed
record on other gadgets.
Considering iPhone users on average unlock their devices 80
times a day, the success of Face ID could make or break the device,
analysts says, especially after early users get their hands on it
and begin sharing their experiences publicly.
Apple on Tuesday inadvertently demonstrated the potential
pitfalls. During a demonstration of the technology, the device
failed to fully unlock the first time Apple's top software
executive Craig Federighi used it before the audience. He resorted
to typing in a passcode before switching to a backup iPhone X that
he unlocked seamlessly with Face ID.
"It's got to work," said Ben Bajarin, an analyst with Creative
Strategies. "From a security standpoint and convenience standpoint,
this is their idea of where the future of the smartphone goes."
If it catches on, the facial-scanning technology in iPhone X
could unlock other changes in how we use smartphones. In one small
example, Apple also is using the system to capture facial
expressions and use them to animate images of chickens, unicorns
and other common emojis. Those animojis, as Apple calls them, can
be captured and shared with friends.
The rise of facial-recognition technology has raised privacy
concerns, particularly in China, where authorities are using it on
streets and in subway stations to deter and identify lawbreakers.
Systems like those connect vast networks of surveillance cameras
and sensors with databases of images and identifications.
In contrast, Apple said users' facial information will be kept
securely on their own devices and not on Apple servers or elsewhere
in the cloud where it might be vulnerable to hackers.
Still, unlike passwords, face and fingerprint scans and other
biometric data can't be changed if they are compromised, and that
has some privacy advocates concerned.
Facial-recognition technologies have been used for more than
five years in consumer devices, including some smartphones that use
Google's Android operating system. But the technology that has been
rolled out so far has faltered in security tests, said Marc Rogers,
who previously discovered flaws in Apple's Touch ID system and now
heads information security at Cloudflare Inc. Google warns users
that with its face-recognition system, called Trusted Face,
"Someone who looks similar to you could unlock your phone."
Face-recognition technology is also used in Microsoft Corp.'s
Windows 10 operating system and Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy S8
mobile phone.
One problem -- which doesn't affect Apple's device -- is that
many other products with facial recognition rely on a single
camera, which can be fooled into authenticating a photograph of a
user under certain conditions, Mr. Rogers said. Fingerprint readers
faced similar security questions because they were considered
unreliable until Apple improved on the technology with its Touch ID
fingerprint reader in 2013, Mr. Rogers said.
Apple says it has overcome the single-camera issue by mapping
the depth of faces. Marketing chief Phil Schiller said the system
is sophisticated enough to adapt, even if someone changes their
hairstyle, puts on glasses or grows a beard. He said it can't be
tricked by photographs or facial masks and requires the user's
attention, meaning the phone won't unlock if eyes are closed or
someone is looking away.
The chances an iPhone X could be unlocked with Face ID by
someone other than its user are one in a million, Mr. Schiller
said. That compares with one in 50,000 for Touch ID, the
fingerprint sensor iPhones now use, which sits on a home button
that Apple is eliminating for the iPhone X.
Mr. Rogers of Cloudflare said the three-dimensional verification
system of Face ID should defeat the "flat image attack" with photos
that foiled other facial-recognition systems. However, he said
Apple's switch to a new login method was risky because the Touch ID
was used to not only unlock devices but also authenticate sensitive
apps and make purchases with Apple Pay.
"They might be going too far this time," Mr. Rogers said. "We'll
see."
Investors are excited about the face-based functions on the new
iPhone. They have sent Apple's stock up 39% this year betting the
company's new devices will compel many existing iPhone owners with
two-year-old devices to buy a new one.
"Assuming it works well, reducing friction" unlocking the phone
"is a key reason people upgrade to new electronic devices," said
Sean Stannard-Stockton, chief investment officer at Ensemble
Capital Management, a Burlingame, Calif., wealth manager that
counts Apple among its largest holdings.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 13, 2017 12:44 ET (16:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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