Face Unlock feature is available on the OnePlus 6, OnePlus 5T, OnePlus 5, OnePlus 3T, and OnePlus 3. The company piloted the feature with the OnePlus 5T
The OnePlus 6 is the latest phone from the kitty of OnePlus that massively built the hype ahead of its launch. The company touted many features on OnePlus 6 that were appreciated and awaited by many. One of those features is Face Unlock, which has become a standard feature on nearly all the Android smartphones nowadays. The OnePlus 6’s Face Unlock has now come under fire after a video popped up online showing how the facial recognition technology on the smartphone can be fooled easily with a photograph of a person, instead of his actual face.
A video posted by a Twitter user who goes by @rikduijn shows the OnePlus 6 getting unlocked after a photograph of the face, registered on the phone, was produced before the front camera. However, we cannot verify if the phone was unlocked using the photograph placard, as being claimed by the user in the video. The person holding the OnePlus 6 is sitting in a position that does not conveniently show the display of the smartphone. The only parts shown in the video referring to the claims are the locked screen before the guy brings the photograph in front of OnePlus 6 camera and after the phone is unlocked – showing the home screen.
OnePlus has taken a note of the issue and emailed a statement on request. The company said – “We designed Face Unlock around convenience, and while we took corresponding measures to optimise its security we always recommended you use a password/PIN/fingerprint for security. For this reason, Face Unlock is not enabled for any secure apps such as banking or payments. We’re constantly working to improve all of our technology, including Face Unlock.”
The answer by the company to this situation shows that the company is still not ready with a technology that Apple and Samsung use on their respective premium phones. While Apple’s Face ID uses depth-sensing to map the face of the registered user on iPhone X, Samsung uses iris recognition coupled with face detection to offer security on its smartphones Samsung Galaxy S8 onwards.
The Face Unlock feature is available on the OnePlus 6, OnePlus 5T, OnePlus 5, OnePlus 3T, and OnePlus 3. The company piloted the feature with the OnePlus 5T – which was the company’s latest phone last year. It later rolled out the facial recognition technology to more devices including and higher than OnePlus 3.