It’s not particularly difficult for someone to peek over your shoulder and take a look at what you’re doing on your phone. With displays getting larger, it’s really not that difficult anymore, whether it’s in a packed train or bus ride or anywhere else. This is an obvious privacy risk so to combat it, researchers at Google have developed an artificial intelligence tool which detects when someone is trying to peek at your phone.
They’re calling this tool “e-screen protector,” and while it’s just in the research stage for now, the tool relies on the front camera to identify if someone is trying to peek at the display. The camera is used in conjunction with smart face and gaze detection algorithms that enable the AI to make that call.
Google researchers Hee Jung Ryu and Florian Schroff have developed this AI system and they say that it works in a variety of different lighting conditions. They also say that the system has a reaction time of two milliseconds. The demo video does show that it’s pretty good at doing what it claims to do.
Since it’s only a research project at this point in time, it remains to be seen if Google is ever going to build this feature into Android. I’m sure many users will appreciate if it did.