Face recognition may be coming to the iPhone

July 9, 3:20 PMiPhone ExaminerKristina Allen

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Apple has submitted 33 new trademark patents to the US Patent and Trademark Office, bringing its total for the month up to 55! It seems the creative juices are flowing freely now that the 3GS launch is no longer the main focus for those involved with iPhone development. One of the most interesting patents published by the office today under Apple, Inc. was for face recognition.

The patent describes two forms of face recognition: the first being intelligent enough to recognize a particular face and the second being one that simply recognizes that a face of a user is present.

The more intelligent face recognition application would be able to identify a particular face and would give the user priveledges based on the profile set up for him or her. The second type would only recognize that someone is using the phone and would stop itself from going into sleep mode.

The patent encompasses more devices than just the iPhone, in fact it covers "any like computing device capable of interfacing with a person."