Samsung patents new facial recognition tech

Seems like South Korean tech conglomerate Samsung has been working on a rather interesting system for facial recognition, one that involves two under-display cameras.

According to GSM, this new system from Samsung has been described in a patent application Samsung filed with the KIPRIS (Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service) back in March 2021.

The document in question was made public last week and picked up by a Dutch publication. At its core, the idea is fairly straightforward i.e. get multiple images of the user from two angles to better construct a 3D model of the face and use that for authentication purposes.

Samsung specifically mentions using under-display cameras, though, which is interesting in its own right. Up until now, the Korean giant has more or less just experimented with the technology on its Galaxy Fold line without a broader release, reported GSM Arena.

One speculation then would be that Samsung is exploring this new dual UDC tech for its foldables. While that might very well be true, the tech has broader implications and the desire to use UDC cameras stems from the need to have the two cameras spaced out as far as possible to get two different angles of the user.

That could necessitate placing a camera near the bottom of the phone around where the under-display fingerprint scanner resides currently. Perhaps even combining the two into one optical module.

As per GSM Arena, another thing mentioned in the patent is measuring pupil size. The idea is that a human's pupil size should vary depending on lighting conditions.

While the concept is certainly interesting, it should be noted that at this nascent stage, it's just a concept, not an actual product or any indication of one.