DeviceForge.com reports that Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd. this week began marketing a technology that inexpensively adds face recognition to camera-equipped cellphones. Oki's "Face Sensing Engine" (FSE) "middleware" decodes facial images within 280mS on a 100MHz ARM9 processor, and can restrict access to mobile devices by recognizing their owners, the company says.

What I wonder about this technology is whether it will recognize my face at night. Or will it first have to blind me with a blast from a built-in electronic flash? And will it recognize me immediately after the airbag in my Explorer has smashed my nose into the right side of my face? Or will Oki say that's what OnStar is for? Afterall, when the airbag deploys OnStar immediately dials for help, regardless of how bad you look.