Face-saving properties will give cell phones added bit of security.

Facial recognition software, part of the hotly discussed field of "biometrics" technology, is moving from airports and police cars into ... mobile phones.

Challenged by the idea of lost cell phones providing a gateway into the personal information of their owners, Japan's NTT DoCoMo is deploying facial recognition software into its mobile phones. And the technology comes from Santa Monica-based Neven Vision.

The feature allows the cell phone owner to specify which features will be security protected--contacts, for example. When you try to access the contacts, the phone will automatically look at the user's face and compare it to the photo image on file in the cell phone. Unauthorized faces will be denied access.

"So if you're Paris Hilton, and you lose your cell phone, your Rolodex won't be all of a sudden available to the rest of the world," explained Neven Vision Chief Executive Alex Corey. The feature is particularly useful in Japan, where consumers use cell phones to make purchases from vending machines and participate in marketing promotions.

The licensing deal nets Neven Vision a fee on a per-handset basis whenever the technology is installed. Neven's technology is being rolled out as a standard feature on one handset, a model by Sharp called the FOMATM SH902i. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"They've started with just the one handset model," Corey said, "But my understanding is they're moving this feature across the rest of their model lines." NTT DoCoMo is one of the world' s largest mobile communications companies, serving more than 50 million customers. For five year-old Neven Vision, having the feature installed across NTTs flight of cell phones will be eye-opening, to say the least.