Federighi reveals important details about Face ID

The new unlocking system of the iPhone X has been the main protagonist once the presentation of the new Apple smartphone was finished, and it has been for good and bad. The company has been the first to trust this security system to make mobile payments, demonstrating the confidence he has in it, but has also been criticized for the failure that occurred during the presentation.

Thanks to the videos of those lucky ones who were able to try the new iPhone X after Apple's Keynote and to information published in various media, we have learned details such as that Face ID works even with sunglasses, that it only allows recognizing a person and that they are you can easily disable. But Craig Federighi, the same one who introduced it to us at the Apple event, wanted to clarify more things and In an interview with TechCrunch, he revealed interesting facts. 

One of the curiosities about the development of Face ID technology is that Apple collected billions of images over several years to train its facial recognition system. All these images were used to make facial maps that through artificial intelligence systems have served to make this new Face ID more reliable and secure. However, one of the things that worries many is what happens to the image captures that the iPhone X makes when we unlock it. Apple insists that all data about our face will be stored on the device and only on the device, it will not be uploaded to iCloud nor to any server to improve the system, so that our privacy is guaranteed.

Doubts have also arisen about the possibility of someone using this system without our permission, since it would be as easy as taking our iPhone and focusing it on our face so that it would be unlocked. Federighi has revealed to us how Face ID can be deactivated quickly, just by pressing the left and right side button simultaneously for a few seconds. If we do that, the shutdown screen will appear and Face ID will be disabled. It will also deactivate after five unsuccessful attempts or if you don't use it for 48 hours.

Will it work with sunglasses? that has also been one of the most repeated questions these days. The quick answer is yes, although the correct answer is that it depends. It will not matter whether the glasses are polarized or not, but there are certain coatings on the crystals that prevent the passage of infrared, so that our iPhone will not be able to detect our eyes, something necessary for Face ID to work. According to Federighi, most glasses should not have problems, but if yours are of this type, you only have the option of using the code or removing your glasses to unlock your mobile. There should also be no problem with helmets or scarves as long as they don't cover the entire face.

There is the option to remove this layer of security and make Face ID work even without seeing your eyes, eliminating the "attention detection" option. If we deactivate this option, even if we do not look at our iPhone, it will be unlocked if it recognizes our face. This is useful for blind people who cannot look at the iPhone or for those who want that even with unsupported glasses they can use Face ID. Obviously eliminating this option reduces security to the system, but there are times when it will be necessary.