"Vodafone has announced a new handset from Sharp that includes a face-recognition security system. The 904SH handset will go on sale in Japan on April. Its VGA screen with 480 pixels by 640 pixels has four times the resolution of screens found on most high-end handsets currently on sale. A prototype of the phone was shown at the 3GSM World Congress in Europe earlier this month," reports the IDG News service.
The security system "is based on technology from Oki Electric and is capable of authenticating within 1 second whether the face of the person trying to use the phone matches that of the pre-registered owner. Should recognition fail, for example, in a dark room, a back up system involving a question and answer can be used."
The 904SH has a 3.2-megapixel camera with 2X optical zoom and supports the Felica nearfield wireless communications system. This latter support means it is possible to use the handset as a touch-and-go transport pass on railways in the Tokyo area and for payment in convenience stores and other shops that accept the Edy e-money system.
Comment: The NFC (Near Field Communications) capabilities may be more important than the face recognition. See some Guardian Online stories from 2004: The magic of touch, a Dave Birch Second Site column, and my earlier Smart Places cover story.
