Apple Granted Patent for Facial Recognition Locking and Unlocking System

Strategic Insights -

Apple Inc. has been granted a patent for its facial recognition locking and unlocking system, which allows users to securely access their mobile devices using facial recognition technology. The patent, titled "Locking and unlocking a mobile device using facial recognition," was granted to Apple Inc. on March 31, 2015, by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. According to the abstract, the system captures images and analyzes them to detect a user's face, automatically locking the device if the face is not detected and unlocking it when the face is recognized.

Key Takeaways:

  • The patent, titled "Locking and unlocking a mobile device using facial recognition," was granted to Apple Inc. on March 31, 2015 (US Patent and Trademark Office).
  • The system captures images and analyzes them to detect a user's face, automatically locking the device if the face is not detected and unlocking it when the face is recognized (US Patent and Trademark Office).
  • In an embodiment of the invention, an unlocked mobile device is configured to capture images, analyze the images to detect a user's face, and automatically lock the device in response to determining that a user's face does not appear in the images.
  • A locked mobile device is configured to capture an initial image using its camera, capture a new image in response to detecting movement of the device, determine that the device moved to a use position, capture a subsequent image in response to determining that the device moved to a use position, analyze the subsequent image to detect a user's face, and unlock the device in response to detecting the user's face.
  • The patent has application number 13/049,614 and was filed on March 16, 2011 (US Patent and Trademark Office).
  • The patent has assignee Apple Inc. (Cupertino, CA) and inventors Zhao; Lihua (Cupertino, CA) and Tsai; Richard (Cupertino, CA) (US Patent and Trademark Office).

Statistics:

  • Patent number: 8,994,499 (US Patent and Trademark Office).
  • Grant date: March 31, 2015 (US Patent and Trademark Office).
  • Application number: 13/049,614 (US Patent and Trademark Office).
  • Filing date: March 16, 2011 (US Patent and Trademark Office).

Sources:

  • [1] United States Patent and Trademark Office. (2015, March 31). Patent No. 8,994,499.
  • [2] editorial@plusmediasolutions.com