Google Says a Fix For Pixel 4 Face Unlock Is 'Months' Away (arstechnica.com) 32
The Pixel 4 is shipping with a face-unlock security issue that's not expected to get fixed for quite some time. "Unlike the iPhone's FaceID (and Google's earlier face-unlock system on Android 4.1), the Pixel 4's face unlock doesn't look for the user's eyes, so the phone could be pointed at a sleeping or unconscious owner and unlocked without their consent," reports Ars Technica. Google said in a statement that a fix requiring a user's eyes to be looking at the device "will be delivered in a software update in the coming months." Ars Technica reports: The Pixel 4 was announced last week, and instead of including a fingerprint reader like most Android phones do, the Pixel 4 features Google's newly developed face-unlock system as the only biometric option. Google is clearly chasing the iPhone here, and the Pixel 4's face unlock works just like Apple's Face ID system: an IR dot projector blasts a grid of invisible dots onto the user's face, and a camera (a pair of cameras, in the case of the Pixel 4) reads the user's face in 3D. As part of the many pre-release Pixel 4 leaks, screenshots of pre-release builds of the Pixel 4's software showed an option to "require eyes to be open." So we know Google hasn't been completely blindsided by this problem; the fix just wasn't ready in time for launch.
Can you turn it off and use a PIN? (Score:1)
The summary doesn't say
Re:Can you turn it off and use a PIN? (Score:4, Funny)
They only allow that if you can enter it in your sleep.
Beat the deadline (Score:2)
Google wanted to beat the deadline and released phone without the technology being ready. Apple had iPhone-8 as backup when it went to market with iPhoneX. If the face detection had not worked well on iPhoneX, they would have cancelled it.
Sorry Google, I don't have $800 (sorry 799) for an incomplete Pixel-4.
Re: Beat the deadline (Score:2)
Good thing it has a fingerprint reader! (Score:2)
Oh no wait! It doesn't because... who knows why? It's Google.
Re: (Score:2)
Poor google (Score:3)
They are at the mercy of google to provide a fix for googles new device.
Perhaps it's time for Google to fork googles flagship OS and make an updated android OS from the Google code base.
Re: (Score:2)
LOL no, Android is FOSS. Just code up your own fix.
The face recognition code isn't. Android provides a BiometricsFace [googlesource.com] interface that is called to do face authentication.. That interface and the code that uses it is open source. The implementation of that interface is not. This is the way all hardware-specific components work in Android. Of course, the implementation could be open source, nothing prevents that. But such "vendor" code rarely is.
Unconscious or Asleep? (Score:3)
I found that if you paint eyeballs on people's eye-lids while they sleep it also works.
--
Be yourself; everyone else is already taken. - Oscar Wilde
apple's attention awareness ain't that great tho (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
i gave apple's face id a run for a full month and i still hate it. granted someone could twist my arm and force it onto a device thumb reader, the awareness check is about as stupid. made my boss try to force unlock on me while i tried to avoid looking at it. with my eyes open just trying to not look at it he was able to unlock it 9 of 10 attempts. with my eyes closed it unlocked 2 of 10 attempts. additionally, if he held it to the side of my face while i worked on the computer not paying attention it would unlock. at least with the fingerprint readers physical force must be applied to my body that might wake me up.
And we should believe your undocumented "test", why, exactly?
Photo (Score:1)
Can you simply hold a photograph of the person with their eyes open, up to the camera and unlock it that way?
Unless they use 2 cameras to detect true 3D, seems like an easy way into the phone to me. With Facebook, you can easily get a nice Mug-shot of your target and unlock away.
Fix the previous phone (Score:5, Interesting)
I've got the Pixel 3a and although it's a pretty good phone, it seems to reboot daily. Thank heavens it almost always reboot while not in use (in my pocket or while charging), but today it rebooted right in my hands.
I regularly switch between Android and iOS, and my experience over the years is that there's always something with Android phones. It's usually not bad enough, but often something lacking in quality. Like my rebooting, or like this slightly lacking face unlock.
Re: (Score:2)
You might want to get your phone checked, it could be something like bad flash memory or a bad battery causing that.
I have an original Pixel XL and it's rock solid. Still getting updates 4 years later, running the latest Android 10.
I was thinking about upgrading to a Pixel 4 but the lack of fingerprint sensor really put me off. My wife has an iPhone 11 with face unlock and it's very annoying. I might try to find a NOS Pixel 3 XL instead. OnePlus 7 looks good but the camera just isn't up to scratch.
Re: (Score:1)
You might want to get your phone checked, it could be something like bad flash memory or a bad battery causing that.
I have an original Pixel XL and it's rock solid. Still getting updates 4 years later, running the latest Android 10.
I was thinking about upgrading to a Pixel 4 but the lack of fingerprint sensor really put me off. My wife has an iPhone 11 with face unlock and it's very annoying. I might try to find a NOS Pixel 3 XL instead. OnePlus 7 looks good but the camera just isn't up to scratch.
FaceID is "very annoying", why? Because you can't just unlock her phone and snoop when she's out of the room?
She is evidently smarter than you, and didn't share her passcode, or you wouldn't have to bother with FaceID, anyway. You'd just unlock the phone with the code.
Re: (Score:2)
Some usage scenarios.
1. You want to pay for something. You take out your phone, finger on the fingerprint sensor as you remove it from your pocket, and it goes straight down on the payment terminal. With iPhone 11 you have to take it out, touch it against the payment terminal, double tap the power button and then lean over it with your face to confirm identity.
2. You phone dings and you want to check the notification. Merely looking at it unlocks the phone rather than just viewing the notification. You can
Re: (Score:2)
". You phone dings and you want to check the notification. Merely looking at it unlocks the phone rather than just viewing the notification. You can at least make it so that the lock screen stays up until you swipe, but then you have to also swipe every time you want to use the phone."
I don't have a phone with FaceID, but I imagine the face unlock isn't as easy as you make it out to be. You probably have to hold
the phone still for a few seconds, and hope that the lenses aren't smudged enough so your
Re: (Score:2)
Check out MKBHD's review, he says that he has that exact problem with it. The face unlock is extremely fast, generally it has unlocked by the time you can focus on the screen.
Re: Fix the previous phone (Score:2)
I use LibTerm on my iPhone to get a shell, I recall at one point my uptime was something fairly crazy (for a phone), like 120 days.
I agree, iPhones and iOS are pretty solid. My current iPhone is a 6S bought in early 2016, my last Android phone was 2013 ... based on what I've experienced with friends' Android phones I won't be headed back at my upcoming upgrade.
Re: (Score:2)
My Android never reboots on me either. I'm thinking bad memory cell, like another poster suggested, and I bet a bad cell would affect an iPhone in the same way.
Google did it once before... (Score:2)
Android was the first with Face Unlock, and back then they had an aliveness check. In fact, it was the headliner feature as part of Android 4.0/ICS. Especially on the Google phone of the day, the Galaxy Nexus.
It would scan your face, then ask you to blink so it could verify you were alive and thus unlock the phone.
Re: (Score:1)
Android was the first with Face Unlock, and back then they had an aliveness check. In fact, it was the headliner feature as part of Android 4.0/ICS. Especially on the Google phone of the day, the Galaxy Nexus.
It would scan your face, then ask you to blink so it could verify you were alive and thus unlock the phone.
But, IIRC, it was silly-easy to fake it out.
All sorts of reports of people unlocking with photographs, 3D-printed heads (that failed to unlock Apple's FaceID) and such.
https://www.welivesecurity.com... [welivesecurity.com]
https://appleinsider.com/artic... [appleinsider.com]
https://wccftech.com/samsung-g... [wccftech.com]
https://www.komando.com/happen... [komando.com]
https://bgr.com/2018/12/17/iph... [bgr.com] ..and those examples are even after multiple Android OEMs had time to study (and reverse-engineer) Apple's implementation with real-life examples of an "embodiment of the inventi
Re: (Score:1)
Sorry to Reply to my own Post; but I realized I didn't include examples of fooling Android's "Blink Detection". But it is stupid-simple to do, all you need is a photograph and a hobby knife:
https://www.popsci.com/its-not... [popsci.com]
As I said, EPIC FAIL!
I have my father's eyes (Score:2)
He held out his hand, and sure enough, he did have his father's eyes.
May or may not be Steve Martin. May or may not be related to unlocking phones
Bravo! (Score:1)
Now that, my friends, is how you do an EPIC FAIL!
Watch and learn, kiddies!
Face unlock only on boot... (Score:2)
I imagine it will become very annoying to have to do this every time the screen goes dark. It would make more sense to only have this done at boot, or if the user manually activates it. Otherwise, this feature will just be disabled after the 'cool' factor wears away, and it's back to pin codes and swipe patterns.