I have to chuckle each time I pick up my cell phone, with my mask on, and the facial recognition tells me I can’t be identified and I must enter my passcode.

Here we have the most elaborate and advanced mini computer ever created in our hand and it won’t work with face masks.

What’s so amusing is this is clearly stated in the Face ID set up directions, created and listed in November of 2017.

What Facial Recognition software is able to do is truly amazingly powerful. It uses a “TrueDepth” camera to analyze 30,000 invisible dots on your face and then create a depth map of your face, while at the same time creating an infrared image.

The neural engine of the bionic chip transforms that depth into a mathematical representation and compares it to the facial data that is loaded into the camera.

Voila, it is either you and you’re in or it’s not and you need your passcode.

This facial rec is s’pose to be intuitive and secure and is able to adapt to changes in your appearance and location.

The odds of a stranger picking up your phone and being able to access it with their face is 1 in 1,000,000. Add to that the fact that your phone allows 5 unsuccessful match attempts then locks, and you are said to be very secure.

Oh, and I forgot to mention it is all encrypted and protected by “Secure Enclave”. (whatever or where ever that is…)

Lastly about facial recognition, not only is it amazingly powerful but it has many uses. It is used to unlock your phone or ipad, you can make purchases, sign in and it even auto fills for you.

Obviously, facial recognition is not only used on phones. It is also used in DMV data bases, airports, Customs and Border Protection, traffic cams, police departments, Dept. of Homeland Security, retail stores, find missing persons, aid investigations and diagnose diseases, to name a few.

The seemingly infinite power of an A12 Bionic, 64-bit hexa-core ARM, high performance mobile chip is within your reach and available to you pretty much anytime you want.

And yet, it is rendered useless by those darn masks!

Hmmmm…

Reminds me of another infinite power that has abilities and uses which are available for us, all within our reach… and yet, we choose to cover ourselves with those darn masks.

Hmmm… think about it.

Cheers to you.