Improved software will power more accurate facial rec

Nov 20, 2017 10:40 GMT  ·  By

A report that made the rounds during the weekend revealed that Android manufacturers are set to copy Apple’s approach and bring facial recognition on their next-generation devices, and now a Korean media outlet indicates that Samsung is likely to do the same with the Galaxy S9.

The South Korean phone maker, who is already offering facial recognition on the Galaxy S8, won’t copy Apple’s approach for the upcoming flagship, but go for a different strategy that would allow it to achieve presumably the same results without increasing the costs.

What Samsung is planning to do is improve the software side of its facial recognition system without adding substantially revised hardware, and a report from ETNews indicates that the company aims to use the same 8-megapixel front sensor that’s currently available on the Galaxy S8.

This means that Samsung will focus mostly on software optimizations that should enhance speed and accuracy, thus reducing investments in hardware, which should translate to a lower final price for the customer.

Apple bets big on hardware

While it remains to be seen how accurate the new system will be, Apple has invested aggressively in facial recognition hardware, with a new camera currently available on the iPhone X to power the so-called Face ID system. Face ID uses a dot projector, a flood illuminator, and an infrared camera to project 30,000 invisible dots on the face and build a facial map that is then compared with live facial data to provide access to the iPhone.

By the looks of things, Samsung’s approach is a lot less complicated, and this should help the company avoid the struggle that Apple had to deal with before the launch of the iPhone X.

It has been rumored that given the complex nature of the Face ID camera Apple had to delay the launch of the iPhone X, and there were people who said that the company has even lowered specifications for this component in order to make it possible for suppliers to build the device faster.

The Samsung Galaxy S9 is projected to launch in the spring, most likely in March or April, and without a doubt, facial recognition and iris scanning will be among the highlights, together with a fingerprint scanner placed on the back.