Sony: New sensors for face recognition planned
of David Haydl 
on January 03, 2019, 16:55 | Write a comment
Face recognition in smartphones is gradually replacing the fingerprint sensor. Sony is therefore planning to add new sensors for it produce, which have what it takes, among other things, and with which smartphone manufacturers are to be supplied.
The Verge reports on a conversation that Sony's sensor division head Satochi Yoshihara had with Bloomberg. In this conversation, he said that Sony plans to start producing 3D sensors in late summer, both for the rear camera and the front camera. The reason for this is the high demand from several smartphone manufacturers.
Great potential for face recognition
Even if Yoshihara is particularly impressed with augumented reality as an application, the coming sensors have great potential, especially in face recognition. The sensors of the front camera can generate laser beams that are reflected from the face. It measures how long these beams need to reach the sensor again. This is to create an exact image of the face. Even more accurate than Apple's Face ID sensors can. Apparently, the smartphone can even be a full five meters away from the face for this. However, I'm not sure that this won't be a potential security hole.
It remains to be seen how well the sensors actually work in the end and what the individual manufacturers will do with them.