Vodafone K.K. improves mobile phone security with face recognition

February 28, 2006

Oki Electric Industry announced that Vodafone K.K has selected Oki's face recognition middleware for their mobile phones. The Face Sensing Engine (FSE) enables instant face recognition using the camera on mobile phones to restrict access to mobile phones. FSE will be embedded in the Vodafone 904SH (manufactured by Sharp), which is planned for launch in late April 2006 and future Vodafone K.K. 3G mobile phones to be launched in Japan.

"We are pleased to provide our middleware to Vodafone K.K. that can contribute to greater security for mobile phones. Because the FSE has the industry's fastest authentication speed for mobile phones, an owner's face can be instantly verified," said Masao Miyashita, President of Network Systems Company at Oki Electric. "Going forward, we will provide such solutions to the embedded market for entertainment devices as well as to the mobile phone market by combining FSE with our other products, such as FaceCommunicator-E2."

Oki's FSE is considered to be more convenient than password-protected phones, in which users need to input the data to release the lock. FSE can instantly verify the owner with the industry's fastest authentication speed, as soon as the owner looks into the camera. Because Oki's authentication method is less likely to be affected by brightness, verification can be done in various situations both indoors and outdoors. To facilitate its face recognition function, the FSE includes functions to detect facial characteristics including the location of the eyes, eyebrows and mouth, and a function to track facial characteristics that calculates the changes in locations, which occur due to changes in facial expressions. "We have been examining various authentication methods to prevent misuse of personal information when mobile phones are lost or stolen. With Oki's FSE we can provide instant face recognition not only in a low cost with no additional devices, but also without compromising usability for our customers," said Hiroshi Ohta, Head of Product and Service Development at Vodafone K.K.