Now that front-facing cameras are all the rage, there is a bit more than just video conferencing that they can be useful for. A promising and interesting use of the now common hardware is biometric authentication, through eye and/or facial scanning as a mean to unlock a device or private files stored on the device. Blue Planet Apps has been working away on their own BioLock, and from the latest demo video they have offered up, it is coming along quite nicely.
So just what sort of uses could we expect? Here is what Blue Planet has to say about it (as well as talk for both consumer and enterprise versions):
“As for BioLock, it has many possibilities. We have ideas for a consumer and enterprise model, the consumer model will replace the lock screen, allow users to lock as much of the phone as possible, contacts, dialer, phone numbers, apps, etc…
The enterprise model is a whole nother beast, it connects to Microsoft Azure cloud, and does the authentication off the device, so the scan is taken, sent to the cloud, authenticated and sent back. It is currently designed to use a 1024bit Polymorphic Cipher which, should by some miracle someone intercepts the encrypted hash, is uncrackable. This is designed to be adapted into the end users applications, for example, a Banking app, or government email app that can encrypt messages before sending them (wikileaks would never have happened). Healthcare, etc… the list goes on and on.
We have some other ideas for this technology, as off shoots of BioLock, using the FFC (Front Facing camera) to scan a users face while playing a game and send targeted marketing, or for social media communication during gaming.
The end result is that with our smartphones and tablets rapidly replacing our desktops and laptops, most of our future financial and other secure transactions will be over mobile/wireless networks and will need much more robust security. Nothing is more secure or reliable than YOU. Iris being the MOST accurate, then Face. We are also going to add Voice verification in the consumer model of BioLock and users will have the option to choose one or a combination of options to lock down their device.
Blue Planet Apps is currently working very closely with Samsung to develop BioLock on Samsung devices, with the possible result being that Samsung will deploy it on all its devices as part of the AndroidOS. We have also been talking to Nokia for deployment of BioLock on the upcoming Meego platform and other platforms as well.”
No word on when exactly this sort of tech will come to the general public other than the above mention of Samsung and Nokia devices shipping with BioLock in the future, but we are positively giddy about the day we can play Mission: Impossible and go from lock screen to homescreen just by eyeing up that front-facing lens.
[via AndroidGuys]