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Bloomberg claims Apple is testing 3D face scanning on the next iPhone

By Cookie Monster - on 8 Jul 2017, 10:00am

Bloomberg claims Apple is testing 3D face scanning on the next iPhone

From left to right: Apple iPhone 7, Apple iPhone 8, Apple iPhone 7 Plus. <br>Image source: iDROPNEWS

Shortly after KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo released his report on the iPhone 8 not having a fingerprint sensor of any kind, Bloomberg followed up with a similar report with slighty more details provided by its sources.

According to Bloomberg, Apple is testing a 3D face scanning feature on the iPhone 8 which can be used to unlock the phone, authenticate payments and launch secure apps. Apple is also testing iris scanning to support the 3D face scanning feature as the latter is still in development. 

Bloomberg's sources added that the key features of the 3D face scanning technology are speed and accuracy. It is said to scan the user's face and unlock the phone within a few hundred milliseconds, and does not require the phone to be held in front of the user. It can work even if the iPhone 8 is laying flat on the table! Compared to the Touch ID fingerprint sensor, the 3D face scanning technology is stated to be more secure as it can read more data points.

As the 3D face scanning technology is still undergoing testing, it is not known whether Apple will eventually implement it on the iPhone 8 and replace the Touch ID fingerprint sensor. The technology may sound familiar to the one used by Samsung on the Galaxy S8, but Bloomberg's sources claim that the Apple's sensor has 3D-depth perception which makes it less likely to be fooled by 2D images. 

Aside from the new face unlock feature, Apple could be equipping the new iPhone models with the same ProMotion displays as the new iPad Pro tablets. Bloomberg also reiterated earlier reports of a dedicated chip for processing AI tasks, a new glass casing, steel edges, an OLED display, slimmer bezels, and AR features. 

Source: Bloomberg

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