Face Unlock -- Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0's Most Personal Feature

If you’re like me, you don’t like inputting a password, but still want some security for your phone. After all, you most likely paid a few hundred dollars for it. Therefore, your phone should be able to unlock itself when it sees its owner smiling into the front-facing camera.

On October 18, Google did just that. With Matias Duarte at the helm, his new Galaxy Nexus should have unlocked itself using the Face Unlock feature of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. However, with its own brilliant mind, the Galaxy Nexus decided not to show off its unlocking power and decided to keep Duarte locked out.

Despite the minor error, this new feature will completely eliminate the need to put in a password while still being able to lock out any of your friends.

In the past, Symbian allowed you to do this through Facelock. However, it was a third party app that could only be found on Sybmian 3.

Android has total control over the smartphone operating system market share. Therefore, Google has revamped the Facelock idea and implemented it straight into Ice Cream Sandwich instead of putting out a third party app styled like Facelock.

In fact, Andy Rubin confirmed that the idea comes from a Pittsburg-based company, PittPatt. In addition, he stated at AsiaD that PittPatt’s version of the idea was so fast that they actually had to slow down the process to ensure the user that it was secure enough for primetime.

What do you think of Android’s new facial recognition unlocking feature?  Would it make your lives more secure and more convenient?