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Face ID Deemed Too Costly To Copy, Android Makers Target In-Display Fingerprint Sensors Instead (9to5mac.com)

"Android phone makers are 'rushing' to implement fingerprint sensors under the display for upcoming handsets," reports 9to5Mac, citing a new report from Digitimes. "Android manufacturers have decided that recreating the 3D facial recognition used by iPhone X is simply too costly to include, and are instead focusing on implementing Qualcomm's ultrasonic fingerprint scanners." From the report: The report says that including an Infrared depth-sensing facial recognition system like the iPhone X is simply too expensive for Android smartphones to offer, which cannot command the same price premiums as Apple's iPhones. This is a combination of hardware and software development costs. Digitimes claims the cost of the TrueDepth 3D sensors in iPhone X peaked at $60 per unit, an incredibly high proportion of the overall phone cost if accurate. Android makers are also worried about possible patent infringement from adopting Infrared dot projector systems. Instead, they have turned to in-display fingerprint sensors as their next-generation of device authentication. This depends on using Qualcomm technology for ultrasonic-based fingerprint scanners, which can sit below the cover glass and work even if fingers are wet or greasy.

8 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. Better anyway by 110010001000 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    FaceID is a terrible idea anyway. Notches in the screen? Seriously?

  2. Sauce by Tsolias · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Best source for your Android news is ofc.... 9to5Mac.
    Who the fuck upvotes those submissions?

  3. This is a huge advantage for Apple by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Apple is going to start bringing FaceID into tablets, laptops, etc.

    It's just a vastly better way to authenticate a person than a fingerprint, because it's passive. As others have said before, in practice it feels like you are using an unlocked phone, how it used to be... I look down and see I have notifications on my phone, before I can think about it the phone unlocks and I can see the notification text and press to open them if I like.

    It's also more secure and reliable than TouchID (which I still use with other devices so I have a daily direct comparison). Your fingers too dry or wet? No TouchID. And as you get older, your fingerprints get a lot harder to read - the government global entry readers can't even read my mom's fingerprints at all, and TouchID does not work for her as reliably as it does for me.

    Fingerprint ID systems are also way easier to spoof than FaceiD, especially behind the screen systems that can't measure some aspects of a finger being used that a direct sensor can. FaceID is about an order of magnitude more secure than fingerprints (even if you do hear the occasional story about a similar face unlocking a device, no-one tries as often with fingerprint sensors or they would find that can happen a lot more often).

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:This is a huge advantage for Apple by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't want passive authentication. I want active. And I don't want Apple or Google having access to biometric info that I can't change. I'll keep my long passcode, thanks very much. Not a big deal to tap it in it I need the phone.

  4. Not the same, not in any way by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The implementation is different, but the end user result is the same.

    Incorrect: If you are in a very dark environment it will not work, or if you are wearing glasses when you were not, or lots of other things where FaceID can clearly see and tell it is you when an image recognition cannot... it's not just being able to prevent anyone with a picture of you from unlocking your device we are talking about.

    I know you are 100% sold on the Apple marketing

    I'm not *sold on Apple marketing*.

    The difference between you and me is I KNOW what is and is not marketing. You are just assuming something real is marketing; I use FaceID a hundred times a day or more, and still use TouchID nearly as much. So, I actually know what the hell I am talking about from a practical standpoint, not from any marketing.

    I have also done a fair amount of my own work with image/facial recognition so I know exactly how "secure" it is not, and also know the many, many ways it may fail.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  5. Re:What? by omnichad · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Look at a photo of iPhone 8. Where the notch would be, there is no screen at all. The notch is not because of Face ID. It's because Apple wanted the screen bigger.

  6. Tired of senseless copying by iampiti · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As an Android fan I'm tired of Android phone manufacturers copying everything the iPhone does (copying also happens the inverse way). It may be nice to copy good ideas but some manufacturers also insist in copying the bad ones. e.g.: Headphone jack removal and, worst of all, the notch.

  7. Re:article is wrong on something by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Then why the pixel XL is more expensive that the iphone 8 plus? How about the Galaxy note 8?

    None of the devices you listed including the iPhone 8+ have Face ID.
    All are significantly cheaper than the iPhone X which does have Face ID.

    The article itself is trollbait and probably wrong for other reasons, but logically at least this part makes perfect sense. Combine that with the fact that there's a huge worldwide shortage on VCSEL arrays I happily believe that Face ID isn't being implemented due to cost reasons.