Does Apple's FaceID (Face Unlock) work with dead people?

Good question! I would say definitely not after the body is decomposing, but I’d like to know if it’s a recent death, if the facial recognition works.

They have to look at it. I suspect there might be a method of using contact lenses to fool the software into thinking the pupils are focused on the camera with a corpse.

WWACD? What would Axe Cop do?

I agree with @gorillapaws – the law enforcement personnel would need to open the eyes and try to make them look at the camera.

Probably instead, they would figure out ways to make an image that looks like the face to fool it, and/or get Apple (or a hacker) to tell them how to bypass it.

It totally would:
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/13/iphone_x_face_id/

@Zaku “they would figure out ways to make an image”

It’s using a matrix of infrared lasers to capture depth info on the face. A 2d photo won’t work. Perhaps a 3d-printed sculpture?

@gorillapaws Yes that’s what @ragingloli just posted a link to abobe. I wonder how close an approximation it needs to be. I’d be slightly surprised (and even more apprehensive) if iPhones are being equipped with infrared laser arrays that can really tell one face from another, or a face from a similar face that has an image pressed against it as a mask. Even if the lasers are pretty accurate, they need to have a fair amount of tolerance to allow people to make different facial expressions or have an allergic reaction without being unable to unlock their phones.

What I really don’t understand is why so few people react to that kind of technology with fear and revulsion rather than “oh cool new shiny, I want to pay lots for it even though I already have a smartphone!”

@Zaku “or have an allergic reaction without being unable to unlock their phones.”

One can always unlock their phones with the passcode. I would rather the tolerances be tighter and be more inconvenienced when I’m experience a face-altering medical condition than have the tech easier to spoof by a bad actor.

Sure. I’d just rather not have any face recognizing software/hardware unless needed by Captain Kirk, Starfleet, the Impossible Mission Force, or something.

@gorillapaws not true. The FBI couldn’t unlock the phone of the mass killer in San Bernardino a couple years ago – Apple couldn’t/wouldn’t help. The FBI paid some Israeli company to defeat the mechanism.

Honestly, I think that the thought of a law enforcement person using a dead person’s face to unlock their phone is more than a bit grotesque.

@elbanditoroso I could be wrong, but I’m fairly sure that the case you’re referring to was before Apple’s Face ID technology. The guy secured his device with a password.

Yes, it does.