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Let Your Smile Be Your Security

Visionics%squot FaceIt face recognition software offers security, encryption, and messaging features.

By Yardena Arar, PCWorld   

ATLANTA--Step up to a colleague%squots videocam-equipped PC and a recorded message invites you to leave her e-mail; step up to your own, and it%squots ready to use. Visionics%squot FaceIt 3.0, a face-recognition package introduced today at Spring Comdex, works like something out of a futuristic thriller but is priced at only $99.

Using technology developed for government and private security systems, FaceIt offers access control, encryption and personal assistant features. You start by posing for the videocam. You then select three stills of your face, and the software generates a likeness that%squots stored in a database with some personal information. As the administrator you can define authorized users; from then on, the computer scans any approaching faces and remains locked to unauthorized users.

However, in messaging mode, the computer will greet unauthorized users with a prerecorded voice message and offer a blank form for messages. Once any authorized users return, they get not only the message but a thumbnail video of the person who left it--a feature not offered by ordinary password-security systems.

If you don%squott feel like locking up your system, but want to protect certain documents, you can drag and drop them into the FaceIt Cipher icon on your desktop. The document is encrypted and can%squott be accessed until it%squots double-clicked by an authorized user (who can be identified either by face or typed password). Again, log files collect images of people who try to access encrypted documents.

You can use FaceIt with video cameras that support MS Video for Windows. As an introductory promotion, Visionics is selling the software from its Web site for $59.95. The company is also offering a $299.95 FaceIt Video Bundle that includes FaceIt 3.0, a 30-frame-per-second video camera, and PCI video board.