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Huawei’s new facial-recognition technology could be better than Apple’s Face ID

Christian de Looper
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Jeremy Kaplan/Digital Trends
The iPhone X is one of the most hyped phones of the year, largely because of its new design and features such as Face ID. As is often the case with Apple devices, other manufacturers will likely try to copy the iPhone’s features — and some may even improve upon it. That is what Huawei thinks it can do with Face ID. In fact, it claims that it will ship a version of Face ID with 10 times the accuracy of Apple’s version.

This is not the first time Huawei has tried to beat Apple at its own game. The company unveiled a phone with a “Force Touch” style feature days before the launch of the iPhone 6S.

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Huawei’s new take on facial recognition was unveiled at a presentation about the Huawei V10, where it noted a technology that combines things like infrared and a projector to create a 3D map of the user’s face. According to Huawei, its tech will capture 300,000 points in 10 seconds. That is 10 times the number of points captured by the iPhone X.

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With accuracy like that, the technology will be secure enough for things like mobile payments and will work almost as quickly as Huawei’s fingerprint sensors.

Of course, there is one problem with the tech — it’s not currently in any of Huawei’s phones. When Huawei showed it off at the event, the company didn’t note that it would come with any specific phones. In other words, expect plenty of Face ID copies in the next year or so — but don’t hold your breath for getting an Android phone with a Face ID equivalent in the next few months.

It’s unknown what kind of a role Face ID will play in phones. It’s possible that facial-recognition technology could eventually replace fingerprint sensors, though many suggest that phones should have both. After all, Face ID is not the most convenient way to unlock a phone that is sitting on a desk.

It’s likely that Huawei is not the only company working on an answer to Apple’s Face ID — though we will have to wait and see if any other companies follow suit.

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Christian de Looper
Christian de Looper
Contributor
Christian’s interest in technology began as a child in Australia, when he stumbled upon a computer at a garage sale that he…
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