Fast Access (face recognition) CPU usage

The key to getting good recognition is to be certain that the green "tracking square" is constantly around your face as you actually log in. If this is present, then the software can learn and improve it's performance. Just as an example of why this might not happen....if you look at your hands to type your password, be sure to look back up at the camera before actually logging in. In some - fortunately rare - physical situations, looking really far down to type may remove your face from view without you even realizing it (because you're looking at your hands....).

There are many other good recognition tips in the FAQ, but let's start with the one above and then go from there. I personally get around 94%-97% recognition so I know for sure that - as long as it can see you clearly in the first place - that the basic recognition actually works quite well.

http://www.sensiblevision.com/v/dell/faq.pdf

 

My CPU usage is at 13-17% all the time from FAService.exe. I have it set for user login only; even at idle, it is drawing this much. That is way too much processor usage.

Is this issue going to be resolved? I have a brand-new Studio XPS 1640 with the latest drivers for both webcam and FastAccess; I haven't changed a thing with this laptop yet other than install the basic programs (MS Office, FireFox, Thunderbird).

 

With my CPU running at 58% max frequency, FAService.exe is using an average of over 9% CPU for me.

Edit: should mention this is v2.4.8

 

My favorite thing about the facial recognition?

Take a picture of your face with a cellphone. Hold the phone in front of the camera.

Voila! Logged in!

Works like a charm with a pic taken on my Blackberry.

Once I found that out, I disabled FA.

 

LOL
Not only that but I can type my complex password faster than so-called "fast access" can login. It's just not ready for primetime yet.

 

The question of photo recognition is one that we actually take quite seriously. Since I can't re-write things any better than what they already are in the FAQ, here is the information that is presented there. It's long for sure, but also important reading. "AlienSense" can generally be substituted for "FastAccess" in the text below, though not all Alienware computers have the "Face + Password" feature yet.


2. Can someone break into my account using a photograph of me?
Generally no, they cannot. FastAccess pays enough attention to how you look when you’re actually using your computer (including lighting, camera angle, angle of your face, camera type, etc.) that a standard photograph is extremely unlikely to match all of these characteristics closely enough to allow unwanted access to your account. Please see the next two questions for additional discussion.

3. Under what conditions COULD someone use a photograph of me to gain access to my account?

a. It may be possible gain access to your account with a photograph, printed at high quality that is taken through the web camera (or from the perspective of the webcamera) that you use to access your computer. Since this could in theory match closely what you actually look like to the software while using your computer, it is recommended that you not allow this type of photograph to be taken.​

i. If it is not possible to limit photographs of yourself from being taken through your web camera, we recommend setting FastAccess to “Face + Password”. This will periodically prompt you to type just a few characters of your password in addition to being recognized. To do this, start the Configuration Console (go to the Windows Menu > All Programs > FastAccess Facial Recognition and choose “Configure FastAccess”), click the “Advanced” button, and then click the “Face + Password” link. On the next window, select the appropriate level of security using the slider. ​

b. If you hold a photograph of yourself up to the camera and then log in manually, that photograph will be “learned” as your own face and could then be used in the future to gain access to your account. Just as you would not write your password on a sticky note and post it on the monitor, however, it is strongly recommended that you avoid doing this if you truly want to maintain account security.​

4. What about a “brute force” photo attack?
It’s worth noting that given unlimited time and unobstructed physical access to your PC that any all security measures can eventually be bypassed through “brute force” (massive effort) methods.
Correspondingly, it is difficult - though possible - that through “brute force” trial and error that someone could create a photograph of you that would gain access to your account. FastAccess photo resistance is strong enough that this “attack” would likely require significant time, effort, expertise with photo manipulation and of course unobstructed physical access to your PC. If you deem this type of attack to be of concern in your environment, simply enable the “Face + Password” feature. With a good password, this will dramatically enhance login security while still maintaining the convenience of face recognition.

 

If you are a fast typist then you may, in fact, be able to get in that way just about as quickly. I can actually do that myself (as you might be able to guess from some of my long posts!). The average user, however, takes between 8 and 12 seconds to type a non-complex password. For them this represents a time savings and in fact can also be a security enhancement by enabling the more convenient use of the complex password that you very correctly point out is still quite important.

There are other features as well that many people value that go well beyond that initial login such as the automatic desktop locking for enhanced security and the web login feature (available currently on Dell's FastAccess and potentially coming to AlienSense).

Also be sure to see the recognition tips in the FAQ for increasing the speed and frequency of recognition. Simple things like putting your hands on the keyboard and looking calmly at the monitor can go a long way to improving performance quite quickly.

 

Well I wanted to report success with the Facial Recognition program. Indeed it detects me very well on my XPS 1645 even in low-light situations, only occasionally like after shaving, taking off my glasses, or wearing a big hoodie does it fail to recognize me. It does use some resources while idle but even 1% is very minimal, and just remember that those are idle resources not being used anyway.

 

So. I have 24 "face not recognized" logs and 5 "face recognized". I have a few "face not detected" when I wasn't looking at the camera, but only about 6. And this not recognized / recognized divide just seems to be growing. What am I doing wrong? In most of the "face not recognized" log photos, my face looks identical except for some subtle lighting differences.

Is this enough?

Will having continuous security on for a few days help my login with detection percentage or are these not inter-related?

Can you also expand on the levels of recognition strength? Linear adjustments up? Any particular changes? Like the highest level is impossibly hard or doable?

~Ibrahim~

 

Please, can we get Firefox support soon...This program is not worth it for me if I can't even use the "web login feature". More and more people are using Firefox as opposed to IE, the support has to be there for that browser. It cannot possibly take this long to implement it. Please svrep, talk to your management or engineers about this, the wait is just too long...

EDIT: and support for other browsers like Chrome and Opera

 

Also Opera support would be nice, almost all people in my surrounding have moved on Opera...

And I can confirm high CPU usage (5-6%) of faservice...that's the reason I uninstalled it for some time...

 

First, thank you very much for asking good questions. I'd be happy to try to help. Thank you as well for checking the logs. Of course without being able to see your system I can only offer general suggestions, but hopefully one of them will resonate.

1. Do you have the "green square" around your face in the video on the login screen? Is it there constitently? If not, then make sure that the lighting is adquate and that you're face is taking up about 1/3 of the video frame (just as examples, if you have a very wide angle camera or sit very far away then you might need to "zoom" the camera slightly). Getting that green square consistently is really the key to the kingdom.

2. Do you move the machine around a lot? If so then I would expect a few more manual logins to account for changing environmental variables. It should still help to limit the number of manual logins, however.

3. Regardless of where you are, however, it's always good to approach the computer, place your hands on the keyboard (this helps to position yourself consistently) and look calmly at the monitor. Not saying that you do this, of course, but it's worth mentioning that talking to the camera or making faces at it won't help as that presents a moving target. You'd be surprised how often I see this!

Not related. Continuous Security mode will automatically lock the desktop when you move away. I guess this could accelerate the facial learning process simply by the fact that you may log in more frequently as a result, but there's nothing directly connecting that mode with the learning algorithm.

It's also worth clarifying our terminology here. When you say "detection" percentage, I hope that you're really talking about recognition percentage. Detection is the process of figuring out that a face is present. Detection has occured when the green square shows up. Recognition is the process of figuring out who that face belongs to (which of course can only happen after it's been detected which is why the green square is so important). A recognition has occured when you're logged in automatically. For good performance, you should set things up and use the software so that you're detected nearly 100% of the time. Recognition will never be 100%, but will impove with use.

I can go into the details of how this slider works if you want, but the general answer is that moving this slider lower or higher will have a slight effect on the situations in which your face can be detected (green square appears). If your face is already being detected reliably, however, then you really won't see much of a difference by moving the slider.

 

Thank you for the suggestion. We are well aware that supporting other browsers - espcially Firefox - is desirable and are actively working with Dell to add this feature.

 

Yeah, the green box comes up almost every single time, but no recognition. I mean, if I am in sitting at one place, I can log out and log in with very good recognition. But every time I move my laptop and try again, it's like it totally forgets my face. Cause?

I do get about 1/3 of my face taking up the frame and the lighting conditions are usually very good, too.

Haha, yeah. I'm trying to go for the same expression every time, though I do curse sometimes when it doesn't work, lol!

@about the continuous security

Gotcha. It's still a handy feature, though.

@about slider levels

Yeah, I'm getting very good detection, just crappy recognition. About how many login attempts should it take, on average? I do move around quite a bit, though.

Thank you very much for the reply! Great to see you on the forums.

~Ibrahim~

 

No problem at all. Glad that I can help! Thanks very much for the detailed answers. I'm very glad that you're getting good detection and are appreciating the Continuous Security feature. I use that feature a lot myself - especially in public areas like the airport that I'm in now!

I'll try to address what you're seeing, but in the end if yo'ure still not getting the performance you expect, however, please feel free to send me a private message. I'd be pleased to walk you through some additional diagnostics just to make sure that everything is working as expected.

Generally speaking (without actually seeing your logs, etc. yet), what you're seeing may be expected. Once you've logged in once or twice in a given location it sounds like your recognition is good. The goal of FastAccess is to reduce manual logons by as much as possible while still maintaining a really high level of accuracy and overall security. It will never elimate manual logons entirely.

As you move around, certain environmental details such as lighting may change. These variables affect the pattern of detail that is visible in your face. Instead of averaging out those effects as many other facial recognition solutions do (which is typically very detrimental to recognition accuracy), we made a concious decision to error on the side of caution in order to protect your data and ask you to log in if there's any doubt about the match. Fortunately with just a login or two, the very unique learning algorithm should very quickly account for environmental changes and get you right back to the good recognition that you expect.

Thanks again for the great questions. Let me know if there's any other way that I can help!

 

Sure. I'll mess with it some more. But, I'll send you a PM about getting the logs to you to see if we can deduce if there is a further problem.

Well, it's not exactly that a given location, once used, will always be good. It gets better slowly in given locations, but even going to the same place time doesn't always get a recognition.

When I was forced to use Internet Explorer on one install, it learned my face so much faster because of all the logins I had to use. Then, recognition was close to instant 95% of the time. But, now I only login into Windows once or twice a day, really. Good luck with the FF process.

No problem.

 

This, simply, is incorrect. At least it was incorrect on the three SXPS13's I had used FA on.

I could use a face-on picture taken in a totally different circumstance, and log into my own computer with almost perfect recognition every time.

It was more of a hand-wave magic trick that impressed people at a meeting when it worked, and provided a good laugh when it didn't.

FWIW, I would have to put in my password for different settings (in my office, outside, whatever), but it would then recognize me for each subsequent login thereafter (which was frequent, as my screen turns off after 1 minute, and requires a password to log back in).

 

Happy to work with you further - I will respond to your PM. Increasing performance with manual logins is to be expected and 95% recognition sounds about right after some use. Recognition will never be 100%. This is true of any biometric that is reasonably accurate.

 

Thank you very much for your observations. I'm glad that the recognition is working so well for you in different locations! I actually get similar levels of performance myself. You are obviously very "in tune" with the software and - probably unconciously (I know that it's not concious for me anymore) - adjust/position yourself for maximum recognition performance. That's a very helpful thing to be able to do!

I'm guessing, though this is just a guess, that this intuition may also be at work in your photograph tests. Of course if you take a photograph of yourself with the deliberate intention to make it match as closely as possible to how you look when you log in, then the odds of that photo working are greater. Of course in practice doing this isn't a good idea just as choosing a weak password isn't. It's been my observation, however, that FastAccess is highly resistant to the average snapshot.

Just to confirm as well...you're not taking a picture, holding it up to the camera and then logging in, correct? As discussed in an earlier post, this would not be a photographic recognition. If these specific steps are done, then you'd actually be teaching the software to recognize the photo as you...obviously not a good idea.

I'd be happy to work with you further, if you would like. The same diagnostics that I'm using with Ibrahim could be of use in this situation as well just to make sure that nothing else is going with your setup that we're not aware of. Shoot me a PM if you're interested.

Thanks again.

 

Thanks for the offer, but I'll pass. I don't mind typing my password. I thought the facial recognition was neat, but not mandatory. If FA begins working with Firefox, I might reconsider.

I could take a picture of myself outside, walk inside, hold it up to the camera, and the computer would log-in.

In the few tests I did, it was actually faster to log-in with the picture than with my real face (probably because the picture was moving).

When I would do the "plug in password for first login" scenarios, FA logins DID get progressively faster to the point that the password box wouldn't even have time to pop up before I'd be logged in. It was usually the 7th or 8th login of the session that would get to that point. Holding up my cellphone at THAT point would take a little longer to log in, but almost invariably it WOULD log in.

 

Thank you for the extra details. I've actually just learned that Firefox is ready and is working its way through Dell's release processes. As soon as we are able to post the schedule release date, we will do so.

We take recognition accuracy very seriously. The behavior with the photo that you describe is quite out of the ordinary. As documented, photos taken with the webcam are more prone to acceptance, while other photos taken from different angles, backgrounds are lighting are far less likely. Of course a photo learned by the auto-update feature (hold the picture up and type your password) would provide quick recognition.

If you change your mind about working with us, our team would be very interested in working to further understand this unusual behavior and if possible further improving the product. Thanks!

 

SOLUTION TO HIGH CPU USAGE

Hey guys, I've been working with a tech support rep from SensibleVision and I've been given a solution that seems to work! Note that this works for face login mode ONLY.

It is basically a configuration file that disables FastAccess 45 seconds after logging in. It still continues to work when switching users or logging off, too. My CPU usage from FAService.exe is now at 0 because of this fix! I've attached the .zip which contains all of the information to do this.

SensibleVision has some VERY great tech support guys! Personal e-mail responses, very professional, and were very eager and willing to help out.

 

Thanks for the compliments Zell. We've also really appreciated the information that you and others from the community have provided. We're eager to make the product better whenever possible.

A few words about what we provided.

• Just a slight clarification. This change doesn't actually disable FastAccess after login. It fully disconnects FA from the camera, but FastAccess itself is still enabled and running.
• This is really not a fix so much as it is a band-aid. It would appear that some other program is interfering with FastAccess or a Windows sub-system that we're using. We're getting closer to identifying the source of the interference, though I can't provide more details quite yet. As it happens, this interference only seems to occur when FA is attached to the camera which is why disconnecting from it fully after login drops the CPU usage.
• Note that this change is PERMANENT. Once done, it can not be reversed so it should only be used with caution.
• As noted, this change only affects Face Login mode. User Switching and Continuous Security modes will still need, by defition, to have a continuous attachment to the camera even after login and will as a result likely continue to exhibit any higher CPU usage that was already happening.
• There is a disadvantage to fully disconnecting from the camera after login - which is why we don't do it this way by default. Specifically, if you run any other video application FastAccess will not be able to connect to the integrated camera for the purposes of logging in, unlocking the desktop, or using the Web Login feature until the other video application has been terminated.

I'm very happy that this "solution" is helping many users, but caution that it may not be right for everyone. Please also note that because of it's temporary/diagnostic nature that this change is NOT supported by Dell.

We are continuing to work to identify the root cause of the issue. I will certainly post any additional updates as they are available.

Thanks.

 

svrep; you have certainly been helpful and your company has been cordial.

I also received this config change file, but with your cautions, decided not to apply it yet.

I use procmon on a virtual machine to try and discover what FAConfigRestore.exe Dell_Webcam_Off.faz was doing.. I saw it was something in the registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Sensible Vision\Fast Access but it was all encrypted before it was written.

I know that all a program can do to as far as permanent changes to a PC is write to the file system. This would mean a file on the hard drive or a hive database like the windows registry.

I know you have limits as far as divulging company secrets.... but I would love some more words from you about how this patch does what it does, and why the change is not reversible even after uninstall/reinstall of FA.

Further, at some point in the future, do you think this quick-fix feature could be added to the program as an option one can check or uncheck? It woudl certainly aid our workflow if this problem creeps up due to another interference in the future.

For now, I am holding out on this band-aid and just right-clicking "temporarily disable" after log in. I may make a macro that automatically does that for me. I just hope an update and real fix comes soon, and hopefully you can distribute it to us in the forum as soon as it is .... as we all know, Dell will take ages to get it distributed to us.

Thanks again for your attention to your customer base and this matter at hand. That goes a long way towards "Branding" your company. I know that I, for one, will be looking out for your retail products.

 

My understanding is that it's a registry change as you surmised.

We actually have discussed exactly this, yes. I don't know yet if or when it would be implemented, but it's certainly a possibility. Until that can be created and released, however, we continue to concente on finding the true source of this issue.

Thanks! It's been my pleasure. Believe me, I would not choose to work for a company that was anything less than genuinly interested in manking the best possible product and supporting it well.

 

Is there any way to get the software to run on a Windows Domain? I'm running my own domain as I own a small business, and FA will not install.

 

My understanding is that this feature is being added for a future release. You are correct that 2.4.7 will neither install nor run on a domain attached machine.

 

Thanks for the feedback!

 

Hello Svrep,

I want to add a symptom of this problem on my machine.

I have noticed the computer will not dim, power-off the monitor, and go to sleep.

I used a freeware program called Idleclock to see how long my computer thinks it has been idle. I was able to narrow down which program was causing the computer to reset idle every 30 - 70 seconds... FAService.exe! Once I temporarily disabled it (I often forget to do it at log-in), with no other changes on the PC, the idle time stops resetting and my power options begin functioning normally again.

So whatever problem is causing the higher CPU usage is also causing the computer to stay awake constantly.

 

Thanks very much for the additional observation. I will certainly pass this along to the testing engineers. We appreciate the help.

Question - does this sypmtom go away if you set the "Security Level" to "Disabled"? If it does, this might be a more convenient way for you to go in the short term instead of temporarily disabling it after every reboot.

 

Yes, setting the "Security Level Adjustment" to "OFF" prevents the problem 100%.

But it also requires me to enable FA at the welcome screen (if i want to log in with my face) and then set it back to "OFF" (or temporarily disable it) again to prevent the issues.

The ideal solution would be the config change posted, with the ability to be reversed.

I think I will leave it set to OFF for now, and just shorten my windows password so I can log in quickly. At least until this issue is resolved offically.

THanks for the tip!

 

5 months after the XPS 1645 is released, there is still no correction to the Fast Access program to run correctly on the computer.
It was disabled as a service on my computer awaiting for news. Now I just uninstalled it and put that issue off my brain. Few MB free on the hard drive.

 

odd. I've only been using this for a couple of days, but I have had no issues with it. Maybe its because i performed a format re-install instead of using dells factory image.

 

Similar story here, I reinstalled my Dell laptop with Windows 7 Enterprise x64 when it arrived (which I always do to remove all the OEM added stuff).

Hunted around for the face recognition software (bit of a struggle but then that's the fault of Dell rather than the software company).

I turned on continous recognition to see how well that worked, and was pretty pleased with the results, but I wondered how much CPU it used, so I checked and saw "FAService.exe" running at ~5-7 CPU (on an Intel I5 2.4 Ghz). This was a bit too high for my liking so I switched that feature off, the CPU usage didn't drop, so I rebooted, still the same.

Obviously it must have been this high all along (even with continous mode off) but I never really looked into it before I turned on continous mode to check it's performance.


I must admit, I was rather annoyed! But I have to commend the response on this forum from the authors of the software. I'm impressed you took the time to let everyone know it was being looked into, and possible lines of enquiry. So consider me 'defused'!

I've run that patch (I assume it needs a reboot though) and see how that goes, I'd be at pains to uninstall it if the patch doesn't work (I like the concept) but I just can't put aside that much CPU for it, especially when on battery.


Also, I notice that the service and client applications are all x86 32 bit. Though I understand this doesn't pose a compatibility problem, it would be nice to have a x64 version of all your appliations, I'd imagine the kind of processing it does would benefit from running as a 64 bit process.


Keep working on the fix and the concept, I think you're on a winner here, you just need to make sure you're not taken down by these 'teething' problems - Once someone has a bad experience and uninstalls they rarely try it again.

 

Sorry to bump this old thread, but My Dell Downloads has a new version of FastAccess, 2.4.95, dated 4/9/2010.

I have installed 2.4.7 and "Check for Updates" says I have the latest version.

I don't want to "waste" a download to get this update; when does this update get pushed to the general user base?

 

2.4.95 is being rolled out currently. If it hasn't reached you already, it should soon. Try the "Check for updates" link again and see what happens.

 

So, it found the update! I tried downloading it three times, but every time it got half-way and gave an error: can't contact the host, the temporary directory is no longer available, etc. I tried again now (still on 2.4.7) and it tells me that I have the latest version?

What are the release notes for 2.4.95? Firefox support?

 

Dbl post 10char

 

It sounds like there might be an internet connectivity problem of some sort between yourself and the update server. Since I don't maintain that server, I'm sorry that I can't speculate or trouble-shoot further.

2.4.95 most notably includes support for usage while attached to a domain. Firefox support will be part of the next major upgrade (from version 2.x.x to version 3.x.x). I do not yet know all the details about how, when and to whom this major upgrade will be made available.

 

Hmm..well, now it seems to be downloading fine. Weird; maybe just a fluke.

Gotcha.

~Ibrahim~

 

What are the changes in version 2.4.95?

 

As noted previously the major change is the addition of support for installation/usage while attached to a domain. In addition there were several minor bug fixes that include but are not limited to:

• Auto-Disable (Program Exception list) feature now works for 64 bit programs
• Improved Full-Screen detection. A video program that is placed into full-screen mode after it's launched will still be able to use the virtual camera.
• Increased maximum allowable Windows password length from 19 characters to 127

 

CPU usage update: If you have not yet done so, please go ahead and update your FastAccess version to 2.4.95. This should fully address any CPU usage concerns on the 1645 platform while running FastAccess in Face Login mode. In that mode FastAccess now fully detaches from the camera after login which should dramatically reduce usage. Sorry that I didn't mention this change in my previous post as I should have.

I sincerely hope that this is helpful to those of you who have been concerned with this question.

 

Works great now! CPU usage almost non existent now. Thanks

 

Please how about Firefox compatibility [and even for other browsers that people use (Chrome, etc.)] ? That is the main reason I'd love to use this program. I always use Firefox and nothing else. Seems like it's been a long time coming...An update (and a date of release) on that would be greatly appreciated.

 

Firefox compatibliy is complete and will be available in the next major upgrade (to version 3.x). The date of that upgrade availability is largely up to Dell and is not known specifically at this time. Chrome support is not planned. Sorry that I can't be more helpful.

 

Glad to hear that the long-awaited support is coming. Thank you for your help and the info svrep. I, and I'm sure many others, are looking forward to version 3.x!

 

im in china now dont have my cd and i had a clean install of windows 7, how can i download fastaccess?

 

Either call Dell and request that they send you a replacement installation CD or register with your service tag number at Dell's smartsource website.

https://smartsource.dell.com/

 

cheers, that worked...