iPhone 8: Face Recognition Unlocking

Imagine being able to unlock your phone just by looking at the screen.

According to the latest reports regarding the iPhone 8, the next generation iPhone may have the ability to do just that thanks to a new front-facing 3D camera.

The iPhone 7 already has fingerprint scanner to unlock your phone and the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 featured an iris scanner but if the iPhone 8 does get facial recognition it will be the next major step in biometric security for smartphones.

The report claims the new camera will merge 2D images taken by a standard front-facing camera with depth information from an infrared sensor to create 3D images. This means that the iPhone could potential unlock the phone based on facial and iris recognition.

While this is just a rumour, there is a fair bit of evidence behind the rumour including Apple acquiring PrimeSense back in 2013, the company behind the Xbox Kinect and more recently the acquirement of Tel Aviv based start-up, Realface. Realface is a cyber security company that focuses on facial recognition software that integrates artificial intelligence, as an alternative to passwords and fingerprint scanning.

Being able to unlock the iPhone at a glance would win over a lot of Apple fans but the face recognition system will come with a lot of security concerns that Apple will have to address first.

However, as it is said to be more secure than fingerprint scanning, facial and iris scans could be the iPhone’s new signature security  feature, which could also tie into Apple Pay.

While rumours suggest this new security tool could potentially be featured on the iPhone 8, it’s more likely that we will see an iris scanner similar to the Samsung Galaxy Note 7’s first but facial recognition is definitely something we are likely to see in Apple’s near future.