Visions Corp. changes the face of the PC security

Try Visionics Corp.'s FaceIt PC 3.0, which works with a digital video camera to secure a desktop computer against intruders.

The GCN Lab staff members were skeptical at first. After all, OCR and voice recognition are still not mature technologies, and face recognition applications are greener still.

FaceIt surprised us--pleasantly.

For the test, we used Eastman Kodak Co.'s DVC 300 digital camera connected to a 300-MHz Dell Computer Corp. Pentium II running Microsoft Windows 95--a higher-end setup than FaceIt requires. Software installation was easy, but no other programs that use the digital camera can be running during setup or use of FaceIt.

Then, we trained the software to recognize faces from collections of still photos.

In the first phase of recognition, FaceIt figures out where the face is in the video picture. In the second phase, it determines whether the face matches one it has on file.

The two-step process is similar to the way humans and other animals recognize one other, except that a computer cannot analyze an image as a whole and works on a pixel-by-pixel basis.

So that's why high-end hardware is advisable. You could run the package on a 166-MHz Pentium, but the computer must process lots of information to discern a face. Performance was great on the speedy Dell PC. The slower the processor, the longer recognition will take.

As you register as a user with FaceIt, you pick and choose from the best comparison pictures. Once you have shown it a minimum of 10 pictures, the software will be ready to recognize your face. But before leaving the administration module, test the recognition so you don't have to worry about being locked out of your PC.

If the computer refuses to grant you access later, you can still type a password and get in. Don't forget to enter the password during installation.

The software can be set to require a smile or blink from any person attempting access. This feature gets around the possibility of an intruder holding up a photo. It's possible to turn off the requirement, but it adds only a second or two, so we recommend turning it on for maximum security.

After the software has reached the point where it can recognize you within a few seconds, and the options are set as you want them, what do you do with it?