Nokia N900 offers real-time face tracking

Remembering passwords and PIN numbers are so passe these days, but it is still one of the primary methods of security when it comes to your various accounts, be they at the bank or online. Well, the boffins at the University of Manchester, UK, have come up with a new function for the Nokia N900, where a prototype of it will be able to lock quickly and track up to 22 facial features in real-time using the N900′s front facing camera. Heck, this will even work when the camera is upside down, now how about that? All of it is made possible thanks to an Active Appearance modeling technique which was developed for the EU-funded Mobile Biometrics (MoBio) project, where it aims to rely on face verification to authenticate smartphone access to social media sites. No idea on how long the login process will take though, and if it is speedy enough, it ought to be worth looking into. After all, faking a face with those Mission Impossible masks are sure a whole lot harder to achieve than what most people might think.