If A Phone's Facial Recognition Security Can Be Defeated By A Picture Of A Face, What Good Is It?
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No technology is perfect and facial recognition software is obviously no exception. But whereas law enforcement groups use this flawed technology in too many instances, device manufacturers are beginning to ship out security features that rely on facial recognition software almost ubiquitously. Many might look at this modern technology and imagine defeating it and logging into another person's phone would resemble some kind of Mission Impossible style convolution. Sadly, as proven again recently with the release of Samsung's Galaxy S8, defeating the security feature is laughably simple.With the public's first exposure to the Galaxy S8 happening a few days ago, it was only a matter of time until one of these biometric solutions had some holes poked in it.One of those holes is that Galaxy S8's face recognition can be tricked with a photo. At least this is what a video from Spanish Periscope user Marcianophone purports. About 6 minutes into the 40-minute Spanish-language video, you can see the attendee take a selfie with his personal phone, then point it at the Galaxy S8, which is trained to unlock with his face. It only takes a few minutes of fiddling before the Galaxy S8 gives in and unlocks with just a picture, moving from the "secure" lock screen right to the home screen. Once the user dials in his technique, he shows the trick is easily repeatable. This trick actually goes back quite a ways to earlier versions of the Android OS. Google had attempted to defeat this workaround by requiring users to blink during the facial recognition scan. That was almost immediately defeated by phone-breakers having to have two pictures instead of one, including one with the persons eyes closed and then switching between pictures during the scan. If you aren't laughing as you're picturing this in your head, your sense of humor is broken, because it's fairly hilarious.Less funny is the obvious question: why bother with this stuff at all if it's so easily defeated? Samsung, to its credit, doesn't allow facial recognition to authorize Samsung purchases. If it's not good enough for that, why should it be good enough to serve as a locking mechanism for the phone at all? Other locks, including other biometric locks, perform far better. Maybe it would be best to table this security feature until it's, you know, secure.
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posted at: 12:00am on 04-Apr-2017
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Studies: New Source For Therapy For PTSD And Addiction Is Mind-Rotting Video Games
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If you're of a certain age, you will remember the derision with which video games as an entertainment industry were met some time ago. While many of the claims about gaming encountered during that time, such as the impact of violent games on young minds or the assured claims that playing games would rot the brains of young people who played them, please understand how much louder that silliness was shouted years back. I can personally recall my own father insisting that if I played video games, I would end up having oatmeal for brains. Good one, Dad, except I played them anyway and now I'm a real-life grown-up with a family and two jobs and a house and all that jazz. Jazz, of course, being a previous receptacle for many of these same claims, but I digress.Less vociferous have been those on the other side of the "video games will rot your brain" position, but reverse claims do exist. Some have posited that there could actually be benefits to playing video games, from instilling in players a baseline sense of achievement, improving cognitive ability, or preparing them to be better at business than they would be otherwise. And now a recent study suggests that simple video games may in fact be useful therapeutically for those who have suffered trauma or addiction.Researchers report that Tetris—a classic game that takes hold of spatial and visual systems in the brain as players align irregular polygons—seems to jumble the mind’s ability to process and store fresh traumatic memories. Those improperly preserved memories are subsequently less likely to resurface as intrusive, distressing flashbacks, which can contribute to post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, complicated grief, and other mental health issues. For those struggling with cravings or addiction, other research has found that Tetris’ mental grasp can also diminish the intensity of hankerings and help game players fight off real-life dependencies.Though the conclusions are based on small studies in need of repeating and further investigation, one thing is clear: the potential video-game therapy has scant side-effects and potential harms. Twenty-minutes of Tetris is just good fun, if nothing else. As the article states, more research needs to be done before the American Medical Association begins prescribing Tetris to heroin addicts and victims of car accidents, but the limited studies show rather striking results. In the UK, 71 real-world patients who had been in traumatic vehicle accidents were asked to play 20 minutes of Tetris while at the hospital, while the control group simply logged what would be their normal activity during their stay. Those who played the game reported nearly two-thirds fewer incidents of flashbacks or PTSD. The theory is that playing the game works within the brain to suppress traumatic memory of these incidents, memories that are not useful in a therapeutic sense. When the researchers checked back a month later, the experimental and control groups had similar mental health scores, once the game playing had ceased. Keep in mind we're talking about 20 minutes of play during the hospital stay.As for its impact on addiction, the results for playing Tetris were more muted, but still substantial.In late 2015, a group of English and Australian researchers reported that playing Tetris could dampen cravings for addictive substances, such as nicotine, alcohol, and drugs, as well as other vices, such as food and sex. The study, published in Addictive Behaviors, followed 31 undergraduate volunteers who carried around iPods for a week and filled out surveys seven times a day about their cravings. Fifteen of the participants also got to play three minutes of Tetris after the surveys, then report on their cravings again. When the week was up, the researchers found that playing Tetris consistently reduced craving strength by 13.9 percent—about a fifth. That, the authors explained, could be just enough for people to ignore those cravings and avoid their vice.The researchers again hypothesized that the game’s ability to seize visual and spatial processing in the brain is key to the health benefits. In this case, addiction and cravings are often driven by visual fantasies of having that drink, drug, or what-have-you, the authors explained. As already stated, more studies need to be done before drawing any firm conclusions, but it seems clear that despite all the shouting about the horror of playing video games and its impact on the brain, the flipside to that might actually be true. And then, finally, perhaps the world can move on to its next moral panic.
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posted at: 12:00am on 04-Apr-2017
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