Apple Wants You to Unlock Your Phone with Your Face

Expectations for the iPhone 8 are almost ridiculously high as Apple fanatics try to guess what the company has in store for its tenth-anniversary phone. Miami iOS app developers are hoping for radical design changes and features, the kind of thing that will remind people that the iPhone is the king of smartphones, the one that changed the world. Reports are now emerging that Apple is cooking up 3D face scanning technology for the iPhone 8, which is exactly the kind of cutting-edge innovation the iOS development community was dreaming about. If Apple can pull it off, it could revolutionize the way our phones are secured.

Back in 2013, Apple changed smartphone security with its Touch ID function. According to Bloomberg, the company is now trying to reinvent security with facial recognition technology. With the face scan, users can unlock their phone, log in to their favorite app, or authenticate payment in a matter of a few hundred milliseconds. There is no need for a close-up — the phone will allegedly be able to read a face while lying flat on a user’s desk. Other companies have tried 2D face scanning and found it decidedly less than secure, but iOS app developers have faith that Apple’s engineers are not going to put an inferior product on the market, especially when customers can use the technology to make secure payments.

The face scanning rumors are fueled in part by rumors of Apple’s buying spree of a bunch of 3D cameras. Apple’s acquisition of 3D technology could be to bolster its ARKit, but it seems increasingly likely that the company is developing a 3D facial recognition system as well. The fingerprint scan may soon be a relic of the past. iOS app developers are probably already familiar with the rumor that the iPhone 8 will not have a home button, replacing it instead with a haptic trigger on the back of the phone. They are also likely aware of rumors that the iPhone 8 will be almost all display. The more rumors and leaks continue to spill out about the new iPhone, the more it looks as if we have a game-changer on our hands. We’ll see if Apple can have the face scanning technology ready in time for the iPhone 8’s launch.