Portfolio Assignment 7

Scott Hommel

7/22/2013

CMSY-129-N091

Portfolio Assignment 7

 Machine and Network level security

     This article discusses facial pattern recognition, a form of biometric authentication that we read about in this week's chapter. Facebook uses facial recognition when tagging friends in photos and Samsung's Androids have a "face unlock feature", to ensure that only the phone's owner can unlock it. Apparently Google has banned facial pattern recognition technology at the moment, not allowing the technology to be used for the company's smart glasses. 

Software companies such as Orebus Inc. continue to work on such technologies however, believing that Google will lift the technology ban eventually and allow it to be used with Google Glass. In fact, in 2011Google bought Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition, a startup company focused on facial pattern recognition technologies. There seems to be a consensus that once privacy concerns are addressed and as the technology evolves, Google will be on board with the technology along with the rest of the computer industry as this form of biometrics will become commonplace.

     This was an interesting article to read, and it had never occurred to me that Facebook uses this technology when tagging friends in photos. I have tagged friends many times, without even thinking about the technology that was involved in the process. I am an iPhone user, so I was also unaware that some Androids have a face unlock feature. It seems that this is the way technology is headed, and I'm sure Google will be onboard with facial pattern recognition when they feel the time is right. Biometrics used in everyday technologies is only the beginning, as we inevitably head towards a completely hands-free, automated way of computing once the algorithms for voice recognition and other protocols improve.

http://scotthommelcmsy129.blogspot.com/

Works Cited

 Hsu, Jeremy. "How Face Recognition Tech Will Change Everything." DNews. Discovery Communications,

     LLC, 11 June 2013. Web. 22 July 2013. <http://news.discovery.com/tech/biotechnology/how-face-rec-tech-

          change-everything-1306111.htm>.