Well, let’s face it. Even if many people didn’t find Android’s face-to-unlock feature compelling after it was discovered that all they needed was a picture of the phone’s owner, Apple seems to think that the software does have a future. Apple has just filed for a new patent that involves both Face and Presence detection, but it seems that they’re not only planning to help you unlock your phone with it.

It could be that Apple is considering parental controls to be handled by face detection, or possibly allow games to have enhanced features through face detection. Whichever the plan is, our biggest concern is the fact that a 2D picture won’t be able to tell if the real owner is standing in front of it. Even if Apple uses the proximity sensor to determine real presence of the person trying to unlock the phone, all you need is to get yourself a decent sized photo, hold it in front of your face, and unlock the device.

Now remember, this is just a patent. Lots of these are filed and probably only half are executed. Whichever the outcome is, let’s hope they do figure it out.

Via: BGR

Source: Patently Apple