Qualcomm: Android phone users will be able to use face recognition next year

According to 9To5Mac on August 15 Beijing time, the possibility of facial recognition replacing the Touch ID fingerprint sensor and becoming the iPhone 8's biometric unlocking and Apple Pay authentication method is increasing. Apple may promote facial recognition as a major selling point of the new generation of iPhones.

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But Qualcomm pointed out that Apple's facial recognition system's technological advantage over Android phones will be temporary, and promised that its new generation of chips will provide equivalent or even more powerful functions as the iPhone 8.

CNET reported that Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon processors - used in many flagship Android phones - will provide infrared 3D sensing technology next year. "Qualcomm promises that the next generation of Snapdragon chips will provide more functions than the iPhone 8, or at least the same functions, but faster and more accurately. For example, the new generation of Qualcomm chips can use infrared light to measure depth and draw high-resolution depth maps for face recognition, 3D reconstruction of objects and mapping. The infrared light will be processed by the camera module."

In fact, Qualcomm chips already support face recognition technology. In 2015, Qualcomm first provided depth perception capabilities in the Snapdragon 820 chip. The Snapdragon 835 improved the depth perception technology and was used in Samsung Galaxy S8, HTC U11 and OnePlus 5. Early versions of Qualcomm's depth perception technology were also used in smartphones that support Google Tango augmented reality technology.

Unfortunately, the performance of the Snapdragon 835 in the Galaxy S8 does nothing to prove Qualcomm's claim that its facial recognition system can be fooled by photos.

However, there are still rumors that Apple is developing under-screen fingerprint technology. There is also a less reliable rumor that Apple may move the Touch ID fingerprint sensor to the back of the phone.