FP staff26 Sep 2022 17:01:59 IST
Samsung is very close to creating a unique facial recognition system that uses not one, but two cameras under your phone’s display. This is described in a patent application that Samsung filed with KIPRIS (Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service) back in March 2021. The document in question was published last week and picked up by a Dutch publication.
Samsung’s patent, titled “Method, Apparatus, and Medium for User Authentication,” describes how Samsung has come up with the idea of placing multiple cameras under the display under the phone’s screen. The diagram showed two UDCs – one at the top and one at the bottom – scanning the user’s face for authentication.
The patent explains how multi-angle scanning provides a higher level of phone security, as requiring multiple angles for face authentication would be more reliable.
Basically, the idea is quite simple – get multiple images of the user from two angles to better build a 3D model of the face and use it for authentication purposes. However, Samsung specifically mentions the use of cameras under the display, which is interesting in itself. Until now, the Korean giant has more or less experimented with the technology in its Galaxy Fold line without a wider release.
So it can be assumed that Samsung is exploring this new dual UDC technology for its sophisticated devices. And while this may well be true, we believe that the technology has wider implications and that the desire to use UDC cameras stems from the need to place the two cameras as far apart as possible to get two different angles for the user.
This may necessitate placing the camera on the bottom of the phone around where the under-display fingerprint currently resides. It is even possible to combine two into one optical module.
The patent doesn’t really go into that kind of detail. However, it shows a mockup of the phone with two UDC cameras – one at the top and one at the bottom. Another thing mentioned in the patent is the measurement of pupil size. The idea is that the size of the human pupil should vary with lighting conditions. This can be used as an additional security measure against using things like photos or masks to spoof identity authentication.
The concept is definitely interesting, but it’s worth noting that it’s just a concept at this stage, not an actual product or any indication of one.
https://www.firstpost.com/tech/news-analysis/samsung-has-patented-new-facial-recognition-system-that-uses-two-under-display-cameras-11335631.html