There are alternative ways to unlock the screen other than writing the password?

Question

Can I unlock the stand-by screen with a pattern (like in Android phones), or face recognition?

Answer 1

Anthentication in Ubuntu is handled using PAM. Looking for PAM modules, you'll find alternative ways to authenticate, and playing with PAM configuration, you'll be able to enable / disable thoses modules depending on the context.

For example, you can have a look at pam-face-authentication.

Another alternative is using Fingerprint readers with libpam-fprintd (see here)

Each pam module provides integration guide, but beware, it's quite easy to lock you out of your system when playing with PAM configuration!