Once again we at TechNorms are returning to the topic of security. These days it’s more important than ever to make sure that you have secure, private electronic devices. Even people without anything to hide like to be on the safe side. Knowing that someone could pick through your phone can be… creepy. Bottom line is that we would not blame you for wanting extra security on any electronic device, including phones.
Visidon AppLock is another useful tool to help with that. With its help, you can secure specific apps so that nobody but you can access it. Using some rather impressive technology, any phone with a front-facing camera can get in on some seriously secure action. We’ve seen these in science fiction for years, and even Android ICS users have it but we at TechNorms think it’s about darn time that other Android users got an app that unlocks based on your face.
What Visidon AppLock Does
Visidon is essentially a bit of clever facial recognition software. You don’t often see stuff of this quality being marketed to consumers at large, so it’s still pretty new and cool. We had never used facial recognition before, and it is quite something.
The software works quite well. You point the camera at your own mug and let the software recognize that it’s you. From there it checks your face to make sure that it’s really, well, you. If you pass that test, then you’re greeted with a text password. Correctly input that and the app unlocks.
Any app can be locked. The Play Store, Settings, and the Visidon app itself are all automatically locked to prevent would-be intruders from changing any settings that could interfere with the lock. All in all, it’s pretty secure.
How It Works
Upon entering Visidon, you have to set up a text password. We used “cheese,” because there’s no way a potential thief would guess something that obvious. Hopefully none of our readers will ever find our bank account.
Anyway, once the password is set up you have to set up the facial recognition software. Visidon operates via “faces.” These are pictures of you which the app uses for comparison purposes. We recommend creating multiple faces in a variety of differently-lit environments for best use. We apologize, our screen capture tool was unable to capture the camera’s picture of us. Take it on faith that the screen was not black but rather showed our shining face inside the boxes.
The feature that’s even cooler is the “liveness” detector. Clever intruders have fooled lesser facial recognition programs in the past simply by showing the camera a picture of the person they’re trying to impersonate.
That’s what liveness is intended to detect. If it’s turned on (and we recommend you do so), then the app will not unlock unless it detects you blink or smile. The system is very clever and should prevent all but the most inventive of thieves from breaking in. We found liveness could not detect our blinks, but smiling worked every time.
Final Thoughts
That’s it, really. Visidon AppLock is simple and it works. Any locked app requires two things. One, that you match the facial recognition and can smile. Two, that you know the separate text password. Between the two of those, just about any app should be secure.
Download Visidon AppLock
Download Visidon AppLock
