First things first, this is not news. Apple has been very up front about the Face ID edge cases.
That said, I did find this interesting, was wondering how long it would take before someone verified this theory.
From the linked Mashable article:
With both sets of twins, the other twin unlocked the iPhone X, even though neither one had registered his face with Face ID on the iPhone X. With the Franklin twins, we had both brothers remove their glasses and had the other brother register. Again, Face ID failed to tell the difference.
Look, Apple never claimed Face ID was perfect and, in my tests, it could not be fooled by photos or videos of my registered face.
But also interesting is the claim that Windows 10’s facial recognition tech was able to distinguish between twins.
Not much of an issue. Unless you are a twin. Especially an evil twin.
UPDATE: I’m told that the Windows facial recognition tech is iris scanning, not true facial recognition. Requires facing the camera with head aligned, just so. Does pick up the difference between twins, but clearly loses in convenience to Face ID.
Considering its designed to continue to work, for example, if you grow a beard, or wear glasses part of the time, then it makes sense that twins would fool it. Can Windows 10 tell its the same person if they wear glasses or grow a beard?
it has already been said that you may need to do a passcode auth if you shave a beard. not an issue.
If you’re an evil twin it’s not an issue. If you HAVE an evil twin it might be. 🙂
And if you have an evil twin, you have other issues. 🙂
The closest I have to an evil twin is when I have less than six hours sleep.
Isn’t Face ID supposed to “learn better” the owner’s face over time? No tests have been done after a twin has used it regularly for a week or so…
Actual quote from Apple’s page on FaceID: “The probability that a random person in the population could look at your iPhone X and unlock it using Face ID is approximately 1 in 1,000,000 (versus 1 in 50,000 for Touch ID). As an additional protection, Face ID allows only five unsuccessful match attempts before a passcode is required. The statistical probability is different for twins and siblings that look like you and among children under the age of 13, because their distinct facial features may not have fully developed. If you’re concerned about this, we recommend using a passcode to authenticate.”
It’s not as clear as the keynote, but it’s written down.
FaceID works by measuring the contours of the face, but it doesn’t do so as infinite resolution. My guess (just a guess) is that if two people are close enough to be recognized as the same person once, it’ll always be fooled (within a few attempts, anyway).