3D face biometrics could come to Xperia smartphones

Would bring advanced security that’s harder to fool

Up until now, facial biometrics have been a bit of a joke for smartphone owners. Introduced into Android way back in 2012, we’ve yet to see the format catch on, no matter how powerful the hardware and for good reason — it doesn't work all that well. Samsung for its part took yet another stab at it with the Galaxy S8 which was foiled before the phone ever launched.

Natasha Lomas from TechCrunch writes:

Just such a feature is set to be demoed at the MWC tradeshow in Shanghai this week — by SoftKinect, the wholly owned Sony subsidiary which makes camera sensor modules, running on a Sony Xperia smartphone and using facial recognition software from a Swiss company called KeyLemon.

The idea here is simple — fingerprint readers are a great security measure but layering on top of that facial recognition for biometric authentication will dramatically increase the security on a given device.

The point with 3D facial recognition is to provide a (more) spoof-proof biometric authentication — i.e. which can’t be fooled by holding up a 2D photo in front of the front-facing lens.

Nor could you — presumably — 3D-print an entire head and hope to fool the “near-infrared” sensor with a lump of moulded plastic (though you can bet the Chaos Computer Club will try).

One advantage of a 3D sensor powered facial biometric, according to a KeyLemon spokesman, is that non-frontal faces can be used for authentication — because the hardware captures a depth map. So there’s presumably more flexibility (and fewer fails) for the user, provided the enrollment of the biometric is robust.

If Sony can make the technology take off, expect a wave of gimmicky applications to come from it but at the forefront can be a powerful new layer of security. Other uses for improved 3D sensors include gaming and 3D mapping which, when tied to AR, can provide some really interesting use case scenarios.

But widespread implementation of 3D sensors in smartphone cameras is at least surely on the cards — given that Sony is a major supplier of image sensors to the industry. (Back in 2014 the company reportedly accounted for roughly 40 per cent.) And has apparently now managed to pack all the necessary sensing tech into a single, front-facing camera lens.

Earlier today I wrote about investors becoming more bullish on Sony’s 2018 outlook and a key driver of that is their image sensor division which is leaps and bounds ahead of others. This is just one example of of that.

It’s widely believed that the upcoming iPhone could have such features built in and if true, don’t be surprised if the sensors found inside are from Sony which would be massive for their bottom line. Regardless of what happens this fall with Apple, don’t be surprised to see this tech in 2018 flagship Xperia phones if Sony is able to get the technology stable enough.

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