Google offers new ways to unlock Android

WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Google Inc. plans to offer new ways of unlocking future Android operating system smartphones, a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office application indicates.

Locking a smartphone is intended to prevent accidental or unauthorized access.

One unlocking method Google seeks exclusive rights to involves voice recognition, the patent application filed this month indicates. A second method involves a "two-icon methodology."

A third method -- where a front-facing camera recognizes a person's face, automatically unlocking the phone without a PIN code or graphical unlocking mechanism -- didn't work when publicly demonstrated during the Galaxy Nexus announcement in October 2011, PC Magazine reported and a video posted on YouTube indicated.

"I guess this makeup was a little stronger than I expected," the demonstrator told guests in the demonstration auditorium.

The Android operating system now commands more than 50.9 percent of the market, information technology research and advisory firm Gartner Inc. said.

The Canalys research firm last week said the operating system accounted for 48.8 percent of the market.

The first Android handset appeared in 2008.