The biometrics experts at Sensory have now announced plans to move beyond smartphones, bringing its FIDO Certified TrulySecure facial recognition solution to banks, enterprise locations, and more. That’s thanks to a new partnership between Sensory and Japanese computer giant and IT equipment and services company Fujitsu. The news may come as something of a shock, with consideration for the fact that facial recognition solutions do not have a great track record of being trustworthy when it comes to increasing security beyond some novel mobile uses. Historically, it can be used to unlock a phone, but not for securing mobile bank apps, for example. Even the best systems have shown to be overcome with relative ease, as compared to fingerprint sensors or other biometrics.
However, Sensory’s solution differs in its use of machine learning and the company says it is accurate 99.999-percent of the time. Moreover, its dependence on A.I. – which operates on-device, as opposed to through the cloud – allows it to be programmed against being breached with images or videos used in place of an actual person. Sensory goes further to claim that it can work even if that person is wearing sunglasses or a hat and the software already exists within at least three LG devices at the system level. Meanwhile, some financial institutions, such as Japan’s Mizuho Bank, have already signed on to use TrulySecure to provide users with an easy way to access their mobile banking application within seconds – and without having to remember lengthy passwords, let alone picking up their device. Fujitsu and Sensory see that convenience as something that could prove useful in other areas that similarly require high levels of security but which present end-users with inconveniences. For example, fitting the technology into an ATM could make PIN codes a thing of the past, since users could feasibly just insert their card and look into a camera. The same could be readily applied to employees logging into corporate apps or computer system or accessing secured rooms that ordinarily require a keycard, pin, key, or other biometrics. Better still, it could be used in combination with other technologies or secure methods when security needs are greater than normal.
The fact that Sensory’s TrulySecure is software based and can work with any camera does, of course, present its own problems. Any hardware running the software itself would need to undergo additional hardening to prevent attacks that are implemented against the software locally. Moreover, given how unreliable facial recognition tends to be, the companies likely have a long way to go with regard to gaining public trust for their efforts.