CBS News: Facelock technology could replace passwords with photo recognition.
Enter Facelock, a password alternative based on the psychology of facial recognition, designed by researchers at the University of York in the U.K.
Previous studies have shown that people can recognize familiar faces across a wide range of images -- even when image quality is poor. However, when unfamiliar faces are shown -- even different photos of the same person -- recognition is tied to a specific image.
Facelock builds upon this psychological insight by having users choose a selection of faces that are well known to them. Then when they want to log in or get access to a secure system, a series of face grids is created, and users must select the familiar face in each grid.