Only for those who wear glasses

[Gsxr151]

Guys, one big thing I'm worried about is the ability to only put one face image into the facial recognition. I pretty much only wear my glasses at night, so it seems the phone would not recognize my face at night. So for me, facial recognition would be pointless if I can't use it day and night. Any thoughts on this? It seems like a lot of people would be unable to use facial recognition...

 

[Nate512]

I wear glasses all day. I think that is a just a minor period of time for you that it would see unusable in the instance you can just open it with finger print unlock.


However like fingerprint scanning there is multiple finger profiles you can make so I assume you can save two different facial recognition profiles, one with glasses and one without.

 

[Gsxr151]

I would think Sammy would have thought of that...would not make sense to only have one face. In addition many people wear sunglasses during the day etc.

 

[cre8tivspirit]

Are you talking about facial recognition or iris scanning? The Samsung salesperson at my Best Buy was wearing glasses and said that he didn't have a problem with the scan working through his glasses. With facial recognition, I would think that simply having glasses on or off wouldn't cause it to not recognize your facial features.

 

[Gsxr151]

I'm definitely talking facial recognition. I was watching a video on YouTube and I'm almost positive the gentleman said it wouldn't not recognize his face with his glasses on. He was specifically talking about facial recognition not Iris scanning. I guess someone will have to get their hands on a working model to confirm if you can put two faces into it.

 

[ShinyTop]

To me it seems like two seconds to take off you glasses would be easier than going to another security method. Of course, if at home one can designate it a secure area for unlocking. As you can for you car's blue tooth connection.

 

[Gsxr151]

To me it seems like two seconds to take off you glasses would be easier than going to another security method. Of course, if at home one can designate it a secure area for unlocking. As you can for you car's blue tooth connection.

Not necessarily...if you just did a quick pattern swipe that would be fast too. Either way I'll live with however it works. Perhaps someone can eventually confirm or deny if you can add multiple faces to the facial recognition.

 

[ShinyTop]

The manual addresses face recognition on page 36. Although it does not say you can add more than one face it does say when resetting security to erase "faces".

 

[anon(22066)]

I can't comment on the face recognition part, but the Iris scanner on my note 7 worked with contacts in, glasses, and even through sunglasses. It worked at night too.

 

[Gsxr151]

The manual addresses face recognition on page 36. Although it does not say you can add more than one face it does say when resetting security to erase "faces".

Ah, good find. Guess we'll see in a week

 

[EMGSM]

Remember, nothing is perfect in every situation. This is why we have options ie pin, pattern, fps, iris scanner, facial recognition. There is also Smart Lock that @ShinyTop was talking about.

 

[arunma]

For better or worse the facial recognition seems to be dumb enough to be fooled by a picture, but I don't know enough about their algorithm to say whether that bodes well for the glasses issue or not. However, this brings up a more general issue. Will facial recognition work with other routine changes to users' faces, ex. five o'clock shadow? What if you go out in the sun and get a tan? For that matter, what happens when you get a haircut? And for you women users, what happens when you put on makeup, eye shadow, etc.? Suffice it to say, our faces can look substantially different throughout the day, so I hope the facial recognition software is able to handle this.

Again I know nothing about their algorithm so this is all idle speculation. But having done some image processing in my career I'll say this much. Despite all the daily changes to peoples' faces throughout the day, humans are able to recognize each other, indicating that there are some mathematically quantifiable constants. And in my experience, a computer can usually be trained to recognize the same patterns as humans. So hopefully, Samsung's engineers settled on an algorithm that's robust against stuff like glasses, skin color changes, etc.

Oh, off topic I know, but regarding the iris scanner...

For the brief period of time when I had my Note 7, I found that I was able to unlock my phone with irises whether or not I was wearing glasses. Strangely, it worked better in the dark than in broad daylight, most likely because the Note 7 (and I assume the GS8 too) uses a dedicated LED to illuminate your eyes. The only glasses-related issue I encountered is that I was unable to register my irises while wearing glasses. Since this is a one-time difficulty, it's not really a big deal.

 

[Matty]

Guys, one big thing I'm worried about is the ability to only put one face image into the facial recognition. I pretty much only wear my glasses at night, so it seems the phone would not recognize my face at night. So for me, facial recognition would be pointless if I can't use it day and night.

Any thoughts on this? It seems like a lot of people would be unable to use facial recognition...

Great question, a potential solution is to take your glasses off when unlocking the device. I know this might become an irritation over time but its option A. Option B would be to take a picture of yourself (no glasses), print it out and use use that to unlock the device OR load the picture onto another smartphone as use that to unlock it (It Works Lol)

as @EMGSM said, luckily we do have a lot of options when it comes to security and unlocking your device. So maybe use the fingerprint scanner, or standard PIN password

 

[daddyd302]

I'm more concern with the fact that someone can use your photo to unlock the phone than it not recognizing me with my glasses on.....

 

[arunma]

I wonder if Smart Lock will facilitate allowing facial recognition at home and other trusted locations. Honestly, the only reason I lock my phone at home is to discourage my wife (who knows the password anyway) from swiping it when she drains her iPhone from a Netflix binge. Facial recognition would be great if it could be selectively enabled in places where security is a minimal concern.

 

[Gsxr151]

I'm more concern with the fact that someone can use your photo to unlock the phone than it not recognizing me with my glasses on.....

If you are concerned how secure facial recognition is, then it's definitely not something you would use. Lol. I think it's pretty common knowledge that this is the least secure method available.

 

[drachen23]

I wear glasses, and a fairly strong prescription at that. I currently use a Lumia 950 XL and the iris recognition works reliably through my glasses. I realize the operating system is different, but the underlying tech is the same. It uses an IR light on the front of the phone so will work in the dark.

 

[Gsxr151]

Good to know, but this question is regarding facial recognition. Come to think of it is Samsung the first phone to ever use this feature? It's obviously basic and the least secure option but still nice to have if that's all the security you choose to have.

 

[daddyd302]

If you are concerned how secure facial recognition is, then it's definitely not something you would use. Lol. I think it's pretty common knowledge that this is the least secure method available.

I should of made it clear that it was directed at the OP. He's so concern with having his glasses on and the face recognition won't work that he didn't realize that it's very flaw and can be easily beaten.
Galaxy S8 facial recognition: Big problem with new security scan feature

 

[drachen23]

Good to know, but this question is regarding facial recognition. Come to think of it is Samsung the first phone to ever use this feature? It's obviously basic and the least secure option but still nice to have if that's all the security you choose to have.

Glasses shouldn't matter unless they have thick enough rims to confuse the eye recognition algorithm. If you always wear them, it's probably not an issue. Forgot to write, probably should have, that facial recognition should not be used if you are concerned at all about security. It's easily fooled. Use iris or fingerprint.