Android smartphones expected to follow Apple's iPhone X lead in adopting 3D sensor tech
Looking to keep up with the competition from Apple's iPhone X, a number of Android smartphone makers are expected to adopt 3D sensors for products launching in 2018.
Among those are major Chinese brands Huawei, Oppo, and Xiaomi, according to DigiTimes sources. The latter two companies have reportedly verified 3D sensing packages developed by a joint partnership of Qualcomm, Himax, and Truly Opto-electronics.
Several other suppliers are forecast to win 3D sensor orders -- among them Apple partner Largan Precision, which supplies camera lenses for both iPhones and Android devices and has receiver and transmitter lens modules for 3D sensors.
The TrueDepth camera has become one of the main draws of the iPhone X, mainly due to it enabling Face ID, which lets someone unlock their phone simply by looking at it. The camera is also used for animoji within the Messages app.
Apple and Android phone makers regularly trade positions in the race to claim features. Several Android phones have already used edge-to-edge OLED screens like that on the iPhone X for instance, and in fact Apple's chief rival, Samsung, is believed to be the X's only panel supplier.
Among those are major Chinese brands Huawei, Oppo, and Xiaomi, according to DigiTimes sources. The latter two companies have reportedly verified 3D sensing packages developed by a joint partnership of Qualcomm, Himax, and Truly Opto-electronics.
Several other suppliers are forecast to win 3D sensor orders -- among them Apple partner Largan Precision, which supplies camera lenses for both iPhones and Android devices and has receiver and transmitter lens modules for 3D sensors.
The TrueDepth camera has become one of the main draws of the iPhone X, mainly due to it enabling Face ID, which lets someone unlock their phone simply by looking at it. The camera is also used for animoji within the Messages app.
Apple and Android phone makers regularly trade positions in the race to claim features. Several Android phones have already used edge-to-edge OLED screens like that on the iPhone X for instance, and in fact Apple's chief rival, Samsung, is believed to be the X's only panel supplier.
Comments
As @NY1822 said, it will be interesting to see how well they implement this technology. Apple has been working on FaceID for years and I can't see them perfecting this in a few months.
I'm sure the top smartphone manufacturers will work out 3D facial recognition rather quickly especially if a few of them work together against Apple. It may have taken Apple longer to develop Face ID but the copycats will probably reverse engineer the system and replicate it quickly. Apple should have had plenty of patents to stop the system from easily being copied but Apple probably doesn't care. Qualcomm will make sure most of the Android manufacturers will be able to do just as well as Apple with 3D facial recognition in order to get revenge. I suspect the 3D facial recognition hardware will drive up the cost of Android devices slightly but for the flagship models it shouldn't matter.
If you put the camera in the bezel then when you want to activate it, you look at the bezel, not the screen. Then you flick your eyes down to look at the screen.
I reckon that’s another reason for the notch: you look at the screen to activate FaceID. So until Apple can figure out how to put the camera behind the screen, the notch is staying.
The bigger problem is that we end up with a large groups of consumers that *expect* technology to be complicated and unreliable; it's par for the course, simply because of their own buying choices. They are unable to see greener pastures.
Apple does the opposite. They do not laugh, but improve on the existing tech, and make it a better and more USABLE.