Skip to main content

Mouse’s facial recognition camera is a cost-effective way to use Windows Hello

Close up of Windows Hello on a PC.
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Windows Hello, introduced as part of Windows 10, is a great way to secure your PC with biometrics, but purchasing the necessary hardware to take advantage of its functionality can be expensive. However, Japanese manufacturer Mouse Computers offers a camera that can do the job without breaking the bank.

The company is fielding the Mouse facial recognition camera for Windows Hello, a cost-effective peripheral that is available on Amazon. The camera only costs $70, which is substantially cheaper than other devices that offer the same support for logging in via a facial scan.

Windows Hello allows users to log into their PC using biometric credentials, eliminating the need for a conventional password. The functionality supports fingerprint scanning, but in this case, a small camera would be attached to the monitor in order to carry out a scan of the user’s facial features.

Mouse’s camera apparently supports all the same features as Microsoft’s proprietary Windows Hello camera, according to a report from MS Power User. This includes one-second hands-free login, support for multiple users logging into the same system, and the ability to distinguish between a real user and a photograph of their face.

We all know the importance of keeping our devices secure and Windows Hello could help many users do just that. While passwords can be guessed or stolen, it’s much more difficult to falsify someone’s biometrics, so fingerprint scans and facial recognition could prove to be very popular going forward — if the necessary hardware isn’t prohibitively expensive.

It seems that Windows 10 users are already jumping on Mouse’s camera, as Amazon is listing the device as out of stock until later this week at the time of writing. If this particular camera strikes a chord with consumers, expect to see plenty more manufacturers release their own inexpensive peripherals for use with Windows Hello.

Editors' Recommendations

Brad Jones
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Brad is an English-born writer currently splitting his time between Edinburgh and Pennsylvania. You can find him on Twitter…
Valorant could use TPM for anti-cheat, but not in the way you think
Characters in Valorant.

Windows 11 requires Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0, which has caused some issues for PC builders with hardware that's a few years old. The implications for TPM may reach beyond Windows Hello and Bitlocker, however, with some game developers using it to enhance anti-cheating software.

The news comes from the Anti-Cheat Police Department on Twitter, which gathers news (and a healthy dose of memes) on the latest anti-cheat advances in games. Users with Windows 11 installed have received an error message when launching Valorant, which says that the Vanguard anti-cheat software "requires TPM version 2.0 and secure boot to be enabled in order to play."

Read more
I downgraded from Windows 11 to Windows 10, and I don’t plan on going back
A photo of the TikTok app running on a Windows 11 laptop

Microsoft just announced that Windows 11 is around the corner. The rollout is set to begin on October 5, with eligible PCs receiving a notification to upgrade in waves. I've used Windows 11 throughout most of the Insider period, and after downgrading, I plan on sticking with Windows 10 for a while.

Windows 11 has caused some controversy, from the confusing TPM requirement, which left DIY builders in the cold, to the busted PC Health Check app, which made it difficult to see whether your PC could even run Windows 11. Although the direction forward seems clear now, I'm still holding my breath, waiting for Microsoft to iron out the issues with and requirements of Windows 11.

Read more
Razer mice could give hackers wide-open local access to your Windows PC
Razer Viper Ultimate Mouse

The security problems just keep coming for Windows. In the latest, a hacker has discovered that by simply using a Razer mouse, someone with bad intent who already has full physical access to your PC can run their own payloads and even abuse and enter the PowerShell command terminal.

A bit like the ongoing PrintNightmare vulnerability issue of injecting bad drivers via Point and Print, this new flaw has to deal with the way that Razer's gaming software works. Once a Razer mouse is plugged into a PC, Windows Update downloads and runs a "Razer installer" as a system process. This installer then allows hackers to open an elevated version of Windows Explorer to choose where to install drivers, and they can simply then open PowerShell by pressing the Shift and the right-click buttons on the keyboard. You can see this in action below.

Read more