To
install this application, open a Terminal window (Ctrl+Alt+T) and add
the Slimbook repo to your system with the following commands:Installing Slimbook Face in our system:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:slimbook/slimbook sudo apt-get update |
Now all that's left is to install the app with:
sudo apt-get install slimbookface |
Slimbook Face is a biometric facial recognition app that uses your individual face traits for system-wide user authentication. Typing your sudo password is a thing of the past now.
If you're wondering how secure is this authentication method, it is as insecure as any other usual mean of authentication and can be hacked like any other method. Even your written passwords can be seen by people peeking around you as you type or even recorded by a random security camera. This method avoids these possibilities, however, if you happen to use a regular webcam with no IR support, a random person could use a simple picture of yourself to login on your system. Even with a volumetric IR camera, there are means to simulate the actual facial traits of your head and hack your way in to a system.
Facial recognition can give you a recognition error every now and then. This is true if there is a intense light source behind you (infrared beams and sunlight don't mix well) and if you change your looks or cover your face partially.
To start using Slimbook Face, you will need to follow these easy steps.
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How to use and configure Slimbook Face?
Our first step will be installing the webcam driver. Click on the button and follow the on screen steps that will be shown on the terminal windows that will pop up.
Keep following the on screen steps until you're asked if your infrared camera light is blinking. Chances are that you may not see the IR camera blink on your first try and see a blue light instead or nothing at all, if that's the case, just type "No" and try again. Your infrared camera will briefly blink in red for a few seconds, so pay attention and type "Yes" as soon as you see the red led blinking. The program will continue with the installation of the driver and eventually will close the terminal window.
As soon as we go back to the main window, you will notice that several buttons are now available. The install driver button will be disabled as we already did that earlier.
The "Disable face recognition" button lets you disable facial recognition completely on your system.
The "Disable face recognition in login" button will disable facial recognition only at the user login screen, so you will need to type you password each time the login screen is displayed after first boot or after resuming from suspension. You face will still be recognized for any sudo commands you issue within the OS.
Let's add a new face model by clicking on the "Add new face model for current user" button. A new window will pop up:
In this window to add a face you need to enter a name for it in the text box. Next, we recommend pressing the Preview webcam button to see if the computer camera is capturing it correctly, in this way we would prevent our face from being cut off or looking bad for the lighting. Once you are sure that you are going to capture the face correctly, close the window to preview the webcam and press the accept button to start capturing the face, this can take between 5 and 10 seconds. When you have finished capturing the face this window will close and we will see the new face registered on the main screen of Slimbook Face.
To delete a stored face, just click on the register that you need to delete confirm the deletion on the next pop up window.
The latest Slimbook Face release now lets you switch between all your available authentication devices. However, we seriously encourage you to use your IR volumetric camera as it is way more secure than a standard webcam.
There are three precision levels that lets you trade recognition accuracy for recognition speed. Fast being the quickest and Secure the slowest but way more precise.
Supported operating systems and bugs found:
- Ubuntu 20.04: Fully compatible system.
- Ubuntu 18.04: Fully compatible system.
- Debian 10 Gnome: Fully compatible system.
- Linux Mint Cinnamon 19.02: To make changes to the configuration or add new faces can only be executed through the terminal to perform these actions. However, if it works correctly in the system when authenticating in any zone.
- Kubuntu 18.04: It gives problems when logging in with authentication, because if it does not recognize the face it does not let you enter by entering the password manually.
- Manjaro KDE/Gnome 18.04: In some windows of the system where you are asked to authenticate by password, the face will not be recognized, since authentication by means of face in this type of windows has been deactivated. The camera even though I have recognized your face is still looking for a face and stays in a loop.
- Fedora Gnome 30: It is installed and configured correctly, however it does not work anywhere in the system when authenticating with a face.
- Windows 10: It is not installed, since Windows already has Hello Cam software with similar functionality.
Frequent questions:
My face is not being recognized and now I can't log on to my system
My face is not being recognized and now I can't log on to my system
You will need to disable facial recognition at the login screen because of a known bug with some distributions. Here are a couple of ways to fix this:
Option 1:
-
Press and hold the keys Ctl+Alt+F1-F12 to access one of the desks to be able to login through the terminal by entering your username and password.
Now run the following command:
-
After executing this command the system will reboot and you can now log in to your system.
sudo sh /usr/share/slimbookface/bin/disable_login.sh |
Option 2:
-
Press and hold the keys Ctl+Alt+F1-F12 to access one of the desks to be able to login through the terminal by entering your username and password.
Now run the following commands:
sudo sh /usr/share/slimbookface/bin/disable_login.sh
-
After executing these commands the system will reboot and you can now log in to your system.
Slimbook Face recognition fails every now and then
Slimbook Face recognition fails every now and then
Facial recognition may fail eventually if there is lots of light behind you, if you lean your head instead of keeping it straight, if you change your looks o cover your face partially. We recommend to register several faces for each user and improve the accuracy of the app.