Huawei, the Chinese handset manufacturer, has teased its upcoming 3D depth-sensing technology for the mobile phones. The teaser reveals that unlike Face ID, the company’s 3D depth-sensing system will work without laser sensor and will be ten times more accurate than the Face ID.
Huawei’s Face ID alternative will reportedly project 300,000 dots to capture the elevations and expressions of a user’s face. Apple’s TrueDepth camera system in iPhone X projects 30,000 dots on user’s face. This means Huawei’s upcoming camera tech will project ten times more dots on user’s face than Apple’s TruDepth camera tech. Huawei’s upcoming system would be used for device unlocking, payment authentication, and potentially for other biometric authorization.
In its current state, Huawei’s technology takes as long as ten seconds to create a 3D model of user’s face which is ten times more precise. Apparently, it will be capable of matching a face in under 400 milliseconds. It is worth noting that Huawei’s fingerprint sensor takes 100 to 300 milliseconds to respond.
Huawei has made use of fringe projection (vertical-cavity surface-emitting light) in combination with time-of-flight approach to calculate the time it takes the light to bounce off surrounding objects to create a 3D map of the environment. On the other hand, Apple’s Face ID depends on a structured-light technique that creates an accurate 3D image for authentication after measuring the distortion of each dot.
Other than ripping off the Face ID and presenting it as a better alternative, Huawei has also copied Apple’s Animoji. However, Huawei has taken Animoji a step forward by making its system capable of telling whether the users are sticking out their tongue or not.
It is worth noting that this was just a spec announcement without any ETA. The company did not specify whether this tech will be ready for the prime time and debut with Huawei’s upcoming P11 flagship, expected to be launched later this year.
Some analysts believed that it would take Android OEMs more than 18 months to copy Apple’s 3D Depth sensing technology. So, Huawei’s announcement is an exciting turn of events. In China, Apple is experiencing the heat from Huawei. Notably, Huawei was the company who had beat Apple to Force Touch display just days before the launch of iPhone 6s with 3D Touch.
Do you think that Android vendors will jump on the 3D depth sensing technology bandwagon anytime soon? Share your views in the comments section below.