People today are often seen wearing masks as a precautionary measure to keep them from being contaminated with the novel coronavirus. In reality, those who display a slight indication of illness are recommended to wear a face mask to help prevent the spread of the virus.
Although wearing a face mask brings health benefits, it jeopardizes the activation of the face of our smartphone, which was pre-configured to recognize our face without a mask.
Security firm Tencent Security Xuanwu Lab has emphasized that Apple’s Face ID can be trained to recognize the human face by partially covering the face with the mast while registering the Face ID on the iPhone. And, by doing so, users would be able to unlock their smartphones while wearing masks and without wearing them.
In the meantime, Android smartphones typically don’t come with an advanced face recognition program like the Apple Face ID and can be educated simply by wearing a mask. Although it’s a hit or a miss depending on how your smartphone recognizes your profile, it definitely worked on Samsung devices.
Now, how to train an iPhone to recognize you while wearing a mask
To make this trick work, first, make sure you’ve already registered your face without a mask. If not, go to Settings > Face ID Passcode
Assuming you have registered your face without a mask, follow the steps below.
- Open Face ID option from Settings
- Here, you need to register an alternate appearance, so press Set Up Alternate Appearance.
- Now, take the mask and fold it in half and keep it in front of your face, using the middle of your nose.
- Start tracking your face by turning your head like we usually do, the moment the iPhone prompts ‘Face Obstructed’ to start removing your mask slowly, like if it were very slow, before it says Shift your head slowly to complete the circle.
- After the procedure has been successfully completed, the Face ID message will now appear.
Now, go ahead and try wearing a mask.
Note: Xuanwu Lab suggested that it might not fit to cover just the tip of the nose as covering too much of the neck.
