Face Recognition Security Software

A quick Google search turned up a number of projects in early development, and a couple of commercial systems with price tags in the hundreds of dollars (presumably for enterprise-level applications).

Of course, you do know biometrics are a bit of a joke, and nowhere near as secure and reliable as a good password, right? You can fool 2D facial recognition apps with a photograph. Fingerprint scanners can be fooled by a piece of tape with a lifted fingerprint, or a piece of damp paper with a photocopy of the person's fingerprint. Voice recognition software can be fooled by a digital voice recorder with a decent speaker.

And all of them will fail due to normal bodily changes. Gain or lose a few pounds, or wear a bit more or less makeup than usual, and the facial recognition software might not recognize your face. Get a cut or burn on your finger, and the fingerprint scanner won't let you log in to your computer. Catch a cold or laryngitis, and neither will voice recognition software.

On the other hand, if a password is at least eight characters, includes numbers and/or special characters, and is something you can easily remember, it will always work, and is very secure as long as you keep it in your head.