Apple’s Application For Facial Recognition Patent Goes Public

iOS users just may have facial recognition in the distant future. An Apple patent application for “Low Threshold Face Recognition” technology has just been disclosed to the public. The technology appears to utilize minimal computing power and can be accessed in either an outdoor or indoor setting. Essentially, the technology will take a picture of the user and compare it against the pictures associated with various user accounts on the device and decide if the two images are similar enough to grant the user access to the device.

According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Apple applied for the patent before Android unveiled their Face Unlock a few months ago. While the patent application was submitted on June 29th of 2010, it is just now making its way to the public. As this is just a patent application, we doubt we will see the technology hit any Apple products in the immediate future, but we’re not ruling anything out for 2012.Source