Samsung Working On 3D Facial Recognition

A new report says Samsung is working on 3D technology to compete with Apple’s Face ID.

According to news from 9to5mac, an article in The Korea Herald said the company has asked Israeli startup Mantis Vision to work on the technology.

Samsung launched face recognition before Apple, but the tech was only in 2D — and could be easily misled by both photos and videos. In fact, it’s not safe enough to be used in secure applications, such as payments.

The article explained that Mantis is reportedly working on the technology for Samsung’s next generation Galaxy S smartphone, which is right now being called the Galaxy S10. Another outlet reported Mantis is also working with camera module firm Namuga to integrate 3D sensing software into a camera module.

Namuga supplies 3D modules for Intel realSense cameras, which is utilized in laptops and tablets like ASUS, HP, Dell, Lenovo and Acer.

This is not the only new technology on which Samsung is working. Earlier this year, it was reported that the company had applied for a patent covering a device authentication method that would measure a user’s blood pressure to verify their identity.

The patent states that “the arterial conduction paths of different users are almost never identical,” which would replace passwords and PIN codes. The belief is that blood pressure authentication, partnered with fingerprint scanning, could make it harder for hackers to steal data on a user’s mobile device.

And, in 2016, the company published a patent for a sensor on the wrist that would be able to “read” a user’s veins to verify identity. The sensor takes a picture of the wrist and other characteristics and uses it to verify the user by comparing it to a vein image in its memory. It can also read and verify a user’s pulse.

However, there’s no guarantee that Samsung will ever actually release either of these technologies.