Facial recognition systems are always portrayed so amazingly in the movies and on television. Even if you ignore Hollywood’s ability to take an extremely blurry and low-resolution photo, sharpen it up while also enlarging it and then make a positive ID on an individual – facial recognition software is real and can be magical outside of the theaters.
The real-world advancement of the technology has made way for software such as Blink! – from Luxand – possible. Blink! is a free utility that can allow Windows login by just an individual’s face – no password necessary. Once installed, the traditional Windows login screen is modified to include a live video window from your webcam or built-in laptop camera. Merely sit down at your PC, ensuring your face is aligned within the grid, and the software will do the rest.
Configuration is simple and involves having Blink! learn your face – obviously. Upon initial login, the software will compare your live face with the stored snapshot photo and determine if it is the same individual. The algorithm is fairly sophisticated, with the developers claiming it can cope with changes in your personal appearance – glasses, a beard, new hair style or color. While I wasn’t able to test all of these conditions, I can say I was unable to fool it by simply donning a pair of sunglasses.
Blink can be configured to recognize any number of individuals; additionally it maintains a login history of all users and can even take a picture of any person whom it doesn’t recognize – great for catching a would-be snoop!
The software requires Vista or Windows 7 and only the 32 bit builds, unfortunately. Additionally, as it is always running in the background, you should be aware it used approximately 25-35MB of memory. For future versions I would hope to see 64 bit support and a bit lighter of a memory footprint. Nevertheless, the software is rather slick and impressive!
