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Sony Promises Better Face Identification Through Depth-Sensing Lasers (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the better-than-ever dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Speaking with Bloomberg last week, Sony's sensor division boss Satoshi Yoshihara said Sony plans to ramp up production of chips to power front and rear 3D cameras in late summer, responding to demand from multiple smartphone manufacturers. Though Yoshihara is geeked about the potential for augmented reality applications, the most intriguing aspect of this new tech would appear to be a better form of face identification than we currently have. The Face ID approach that Apple first brought into use on the iPhone X -- and others like Xiaomi, Huawei, and Vivo have since emulated -- works by projecting out a grid of invisible dots and detecting the user's face by the deformations of that grid in 3D space. Sony's 3D sensor, on the hand, is said to deploy laser pulses, which, much like a bat's echolocation, creates a depth map of its surroundings by measuring how long a pulse takes to bounce back. Sony's sensor chief argues this produces more detailed models of users' faces, plus it apparently works from as far away as five meters (16 feet).

6 of 46 comments (clear)

  1. This sounds dangerous - DO NOT WANT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I do not want my phone emitting laser pulses. This has the potential to be dangerous, albeit not lethal with the typical power levels found in a modern phone. It sounds like it also could be hijacked and used to sense a user's immediate surroundings if it works out to 15 feet. It probably could generate a 3D map of the inside of your house as you walked through it. With this type of information, you quickly lose superiority over a burglar or invader, especially given the superior firepower and element of surprise they are likely to have.

    1. Re:This sounds dangerous - DO NOT WANT by Drethon · · Score: 2

      I do not want my phone emitting laser pulses. This has the potential to be dangerous, albeit not lethal with the typical power levels found in a modern phone. It sounds like it also could be hijacked and used to sense a user's immediate surroundings if it works out to 15 feet. It probably could generate a 3D map of the inside of your house as you walked through it. With this type of information, you quickly lose superiority over a burglar or invader, especially given the superior firepower and element of surprise they are likely to have.

      Also best not to allow the phone to sense light and construct a 2D image that a good computer program could convert into 3D provided enough light from different angles. I hear electric tape is pretty good for preventing light from coming or going out, tin foil works pretty well too and has other benefits to blocking incoming EM signals that can be used to determine the location or send out sound picked up by said phone.

    2. Re:This sounds dangerous - DO NOT WANT by jellomizer · · Score: 2

      There are many things that are perfectly safe which when we find out what is happening sounds dangerous. There are also a lot of things that we think are as safe is actually quite dangerous.

      The most risky thing I tend to do every day is my daily commute. Over the past 10 years with this particular commute, I have gotten into one accident which no one was hurt except for my car and my bank wallet. (a Prius will take more damage then a Hummer does on impact)
      However every day, I put myself in a ton of metal, powered by electricity and controlled explosions of gasoline. hurtling myself at speed of about 65 miles per hour. With other people doing the same thing as well. But I do this daily.

       

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    3. Re:This sounds dangerous - DO NOT WANT by jwhyche · · Score: 2

      You say this now, but what happens when some evil hacker turns one of these up to say 5MW?

      Actually that would be kind of cool if it was possible.

      --
      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
  2. Great idea! by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Funny

    Do not look at phone with remaining eye.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  3. I can't wait for the dirt cheap LIDAR modules by mark_reh · · Score: 2

    used to do this hit the hobby market. Time to start planning some projects...