Tech

Even identical twins couldn’t fool Windows 10’s facial recognition

Logging in without a password is now easier than ever, and it seems like it’s also pretty secure.

Photo of Mike Wehner

Mike Wehner

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In the race to develop the smartest consumer-level facial-recognition technology, Windows 10 appears to be leading the pack. In fact, it’s so accurate that not even identical twins can fool Microsoft‘s Windows Hello login system.

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Windows Hello uses an Intel 3D camera system called RealSense that relies on three separate lenses—a regular camera, an infrared camera, and an infrared laser projector—to track movements and even facial expressions.

Intel RealSense face tracking

Intel RealSense face tracking

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To test Windows Hello’s accuracy, the Australian gathered a dozen twins and had them set up their own logins on a new Windows 10 Lenovo Thinkpad.

 The RealSense technology performed extremely well—in almost every case, the system was able to correctly distinguish between the two siblings and authenticate only the sibling whose account was being accessed. 

Windows Hello only failed one round of the test, and in that case it failed to allow either twin to log in, rather than incorrectly allowing one twin to log in as the other. The bottom line, and one that Microsoft will be sure to tout, is that Windows Hello never allowed anyone to access an account that they didn’t own—and that’s a seriously impressive feat. 

Photo via rizkapb/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0)

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