Facial recognition has been around for a while. Its been glamorized in spy movies, right there along with iris detection. But KeyLemon, a Swiss-based startup, wants to bring facial recognition software to the masses.
Gilles Florey is the founder of Key Lemon. And he’s configured his computer so I can access it using my face.
HELMICK: So now I have to stay in front of the web cam, and it put me right in. So now I can access all my stuff this way. Well, actually it will be your stuff.
FLOREY: It will be my stuff.
HELMICK: Alright, now I can change your Facebook profile.
FLOREY: Better not.
Some computer brands already have this. But there is a difference with KeyLemon’s version. It is only about 20 francs.
FLOREY: We focus on mass market. We are trying to sell this to everyone. We don’t try to be a high secure system. However, we have the same security, but we offer this for convenience, for fun, for really having face recognition on your computer
So it is cheaper and can replace the password that initially unlocks your computer. Florey is quick to point out that this device is not all about security rather convenience. But there are security measures here.
FLOREY: If I lock and I put it on my side, you see I can’t get in. I can turn. I can try. It recognizes the face but it is not you so it won’t let me in. If I try to hit enter to put in a password, it doesn’t work. And then what we do as well, is we try to get pictures if it is not the right person.
HELMICK: Ah. So it’s you. So it took a picture of you because it said this is not he right person. It took a picture of you and it is storing it in there. So when I come back to my computer and log on, I can see who has been trying to get into my computer.
FLOREY: Exactly.
KeyLemon is still in the startup phase. They have built an online community that works out the bugs and gives advice for further development. Florey, the 27-year-old founder of the company, hopes to strike a deal with a major computer manufacturer, so the software is part of every computer sold. Until then, he’ll have to hope people download the software and find that having facial recognition on their computers is as much a novelty as it is a convenience.
(The software doesn’t yet work on Macs.)