Apple can replace passcode unlocking feature on iPhone, iPad

PanARMENIAN.Net - Apple could replace the passcode unlocking feature on the iPhone and iPad with a new system based on image recognition, according to a patent filing.

The proposed technology would show a random picture of one of the owner's contacts and ask for their name from a list on the touchscreen or via voice recognition.

Apple applied to protect the idea in 2011 and it was published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office this week. The firm its current passcode system could be too easily circumvented by thieves.

"Users sometimes misplace their handheld devices or inadvertently leave them in public places," Apple said.

"To dissuade thieves from stealing handheld devices (or people from accessing their friends' devices), many software manufacturers require a user to provide input that 'unlocks' the handheld device. Such input may be a passcode of four or more characters. However, this approach for authenticating a user can be easily compromised. For example, a thief sitting on a bus may notice the four characters that an unsuspecting person entered on the person's smart phone. As another example, a thief may pick up a tablet computer in a public place and discover, based on finger prints on the display of the tablet computer, which characters were recently selected by the owner of the tablet computer."

The proposed would not necessarily be based on identifying people, it added. For instance, a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge could be associated by the iPhone owner with the digits 5341 because they are the last digits of the phone number of someone they met there.

"Thus, '5341' must be entered whenever that image is displayed as part of the authentication process," Apple explained.

The firm is believed to be exploring other ways it could replace the iOS passcode system. In 2011 Apple also acquired Authentec, a biometrics company, hinting at the possibility of fingerprint recognition.

It has also filed several parents related to facial recognition, whereby the iPhone or iPad would identify its legitimate owner from their facial features. Such technology has already been implemented in Android, but it has been shown that it is possible to unlock handsets by showing them a photo of the owner.

The idea of asking users to authenticate their identity by recognizing faces is not completely original either. In 2010 Facebook implemented a system that allows members to recover forgotten passwords by identifying their friends' profile pictures.