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Mr. Jacobowitz added that emerging camera technologies would be the key to stronger security features and applications for so-called augmented reality, which uses data to digitally manipulate the physical world when people look through a smartphone lens.
Here’s a rundown on what this all means for how your next smartphone will work.
Face Scanning
For the last few years, we have become accustomed to unlocking our smartphones by scanning our fingerprints or entering a passcode. But when Apple shows its new iPhones next month, including a premium model with a starting price of $999, the company will introduce infrared facial recognition as a new method for unlocking the device.
How would the new iPhone do that exactly? Apple declined to comment. But Qualcomm’s Spectra, a so-called depth-sensing camera system, is one example of how face scanning works.
The Spectra system includes a module that sprays an object with infrared dots to gather information about the depth of an object based on the size and the contortion of the dots. If the dots are smaller, then the object is farther away; if they are bigger, the object is closer. The imaging system can then stitch the patterns into a detailed 3-D image of your face to determine if you are indeed the owner of your smartphone before unlocking it.
“You’re seeing the contours of the head — it’s not just the front of the face as you’re typically thinking about,” said Sy Choudhury, a senior director of product security for Qualcomm.
