Apple acquires patents from Lighthouse, an AI home security camera startup

The patents acquired by Apple largely deal with using computer vision to scan and recognise faces, which may mean that the company might upgrade Face ID in its upcoming devices.

Apple reportedly bought the patent portfolio of the company at the end of 2018, reported The Verge. (REUTERS)

Apple is looking to upgrade Face ID in its upcoming phones and devices and has acquired patents of an AI security camera company, Lighthouse. 

Apple reportedly bought the patent portfolio of the company at the end of 2018, reported The Verge.

The patents acquired by Apple largely deal with using computer vision to scan and recognise faces, which may mean that the company might upgrade Face ID in its upcoming devices.

If those sound familiar, it's because Lighthouse's patents describe technology that's quite similar to what Apple uses for Face ID on its iPhone XS and XR devices.

It is possible that Apple is looking to use Lighthouse's technology to advance Face ID further, maybe, in a version for a computer that would benefit from Lighthouse's ability to tell faces apart from a farther distance than the Face ID system currently on its smartphones or Apple could use the ability to recognise multiple users to add the long-requested ability to add several Face ID users to share a single device or phone.