14 DAY TRIAL // We’ve known for a while the iPhone 8 would come with alternative unlocking methods, and code discovered in Apple’s HomePod firmware confirms that face recognition is very likely to be introduced.
Developer Steve Troughton-Smith dissected the HomePod code to discover what’s pretty much the official confirmation that the iPhone 8 would feature infrared-based face unlocking, with the documentation indicating that Apple wants this system to detect a partially occluded face or even faces from different angles.
There’s a chance that Apple would use more than just a sensor, most likely to enable 3D recognition, and the feature would generate 3D models of faces that would be stored on the device and then compared to new samples as users attempt to unlock the iPhone.
The face recognition hints were discovered in BiometricKit, the framework that enables Touch ID, and this could be a sign that Apple does not plan to replace fingerprint scanning completely, but offer Face ID as an alternative. More recently, there were reports that Touch ID could be removed completely from the iPhone 8, as Apple failed to embed the sensor into the display.
Codenamed D22
The code confirms that iPhone 8 would use infrared sensors for face unlocking and not lasers, which are potentially more harmful to human eyes. On the other hand, infrared light could come with a series of setbacks, including possible face recognition issues in direct sunlight or in other environments where other forms of infrared light is detected.
As far as the security that this feature provides, it’s expected to be at least as strong as Touch ID, though it’s been proved on smartphones that are already on the market that cracking face recognition is possible with little effort.
In addition to Face ID, the firmware also includes an image of the iPhone 8, confirming that the device would indeed come with narrow bezels similar to the Galaxy S8, sans the curved edges. The image was stored as a core animation archive file, alongside lines of code that confirm the iPhone 8 is internally codenamed D22.
The device is projected to see daylight in September, but there are reports that major delays could impact the beginning on sales, mostly because of the limited supply. The iPhone 8 could thus become available in October or November, approximately one month after the new iPhone 7s and 7s Plus hit the shelves.