[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QBLKBYrgvk&feature=player_detailpage"]Polar Rose - Recognizr - YouTube[/ame]

9to5 Mac reports today that it has discovered two iOS 5-exclusive facial recognition APIs in the iOS 5 beta, which it refers to as “highly sophisticated.” The first API is CIFaceFeature, which can tell from a picture where someone’s mouth and eyes are. The second API, CIDetector, is an operating system resource used to enable images for facial detection purposes.

9to5 Mac believes that Apple is not necessarily intending to release its own iOS 5 app based on facial detection features, but that it is actually going to “open up” the technology as a public developer API for iOS 5 apps. Basically, that means that developers will be able to easily use advanced facial detection technology in their apps.

Back in 2010, 9to5 Mac revealed that Apple had acquired Swedish company Polar Rose, presumably for the company’s specialist face detection algorithms (see video at the top of this post). According to 9to5 Mac, these two newly discovered APIs, as well as the Photo Booth features in Photo Booth in OS X Lion, are the first fruits from this acquisition.

Source: Face detection software and API land in iOS 5 following Apple’s 2010 purchase of Polar Rose | 9to5Mac | Apple Intelligence

Really just great application to have in ipad, it is quite helpful as security point of view as well.