Locking and unlocking a mobile device using facial recognition

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8994499-B2
Application number	US-201113049614-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 16, 2011
Priority date	Mar 16, 2011
Publication date	Mar 31, 2015
Grant date	Mar 31, 2015

Abstract

In an embodiment of the invention, an unlocked mobile device is configured to capture images, analyze the images to detect a user's face, and automatically lock the device in response to determining that a user's face does not appear in the images. The camera capturing and face recognition processing may be triggered by the device having detected that it has been motionless for a threshold period of time. In another embodiment, a locked mobile device is configured to capture an initial image using its camera, capture a new image in response to detecting movement of the device, determine that the device moved to a use position, capture a subsequent image in response to determining that the device moved to a use position, analyze the subsequent image to detect a user's face, and unlock the device in response to detecting the user's face. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for automatically unlocking a mobile device having a camera, comprising:
capturing an initial image using the camera while the device is locked;
monitoring a motion state of the mobile device to determine whether the device is moving or is motionless;
while the device is locked, detecting movement representative of intended movement of the device;
in response to detecting the movement of the device, capturing a new image using the camera;
de…

Assignees

• Zhao Lihua
• Tsai Richard
• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Zhao Lihua
• Tsai Richard

Classifications

• G06F21/32 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• H04W12/06

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L63/0861

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W88/02

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G06V40/172

  Physics · mapped topic