26 10 / 2011
Android 4.0 - Face Unlock
I’ve seen a number of podcasts and blogs where the face unlock feature of Android 4.0 has been questioned on it’s performance and whether it will be used in the wild. A number of people are chalking it up to be like FaceTime on iOS; a great tech demo but not something people use very often, if ever.
While we won’t know how often it’s used until the OS is actually available, there are two things that will determine if it’s going to be used by most people. Does it work, and how quickly does it recognize my face?
While the stage demos in Hong Kong weren’t overly successful, I’ve seen enough videos of the Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0 to know it does work. Perhaps available light effects it’s ability to detect your face, but we won’t know for sure for another couple of weeks.
The biggest gripe I’ve heard is how quickly the scan performs. A recent TWiT episode, I believe it was This Week in Google actually, seemed to be less than optimistic on the performance based on the demonstrations we saw at the unveil. I have to believe Google realizes that these two factors are critical to the success of this feature, which given how often you’re going to use it, appears to be a pretty importance piece of Android 4.0.
I ran across these videos today, and was happy to see how quickly and well the face unlock feature was working in a soup to nuts demonstration.
http://androidcommunity.com/samsung-galaxy-nexus-on-amazon-uk-ships-november-2nd-20111026/
Second video, skip to 5:40. The whole video is a good watch if you’re interested in more Ice Cream Sandwich.
