Facial Recognition to Complement Galaxy S8’s Iris Scanning: Report

Samsung is planning to incorporate facial recognition into the forthcoming Galaxy S8 smartphone, reports The Korea Economic Daily.

The feature will complement iris scanning in the device’s overall biometric authentication process. While Samsung had previously been keen to push the enhanced security of iris scanning on its aborted Note7 smartphone last year, a company official was quoted as suggesting that Samsung has added facial recognition to the mix because “iris recognition is limited in terms of accuracy and speed of recognition.” The official said that the system allows user authentication in under 0.01 seconds.

Apple is also thought to be exploring facial recognition for its own forthcoming flagship device, with at least one analyst having suggested that Apple is going to choose the modality over iris scanning, rather than incorporate both. Nevertheless, a new report from market research firm Tractica predicts a coming boom in the iris recognition market, driven largely by consumer electronic devices.

As for Samsung’s efforts in biometric authentication, a clearer picture should emerge when the company officially unveils the device on March 29th.

Source: The Korea Economic Daily