Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest handset chip supplier, said it is close to a production ramp-up of new 3D depth-sensing technology in collaboration with Taiwan’s supply chain, allowing Android-based devices to use facial recognition to unlock mobile phones or even cars in the near future.
The new technology, which would use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors, can be applied to a wide-range of applications, primarily biometric unlocking of smartphones, similar to the facial recognition unlocking function reportedly to be adopted by Apple Inc for its new iPhones to replace its fingerprint identification feature.
Qualcomm expects the demand for its 3D-sensing technology to grow rapidly, as Android smartphone makers are expected to follow Apple by equipping their flagship models with the new feature.
“We think that mobile phones should be unlocked automatically whenever you pick up the phone. This is what the new user interface should look like, rather than pressing your fingerprint [to unlock the device],” Qualcomm Technologies Inc multimedia research and development head Chienchung Chang (章建中) said on Friday last week.
Qualcomm Technologies, a fully-owned subsidiary of Qualcomm, said the 3D-sensing technology uses infrared light patterns to infer depth, which produces a high-resolution map for accurate 3D facial detection, recognition and authentication.
The 3D-sensing technology could be expanded to virtual reality (VR) headsets, robotics, home security systems, drones and vehicles, Chang said.
Qualcomm’s 3D-sensing devices are expected to be ready for production at the end of the year at the earliest in cooperation with local suppliers including Himax Technologies Inc (奇景) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電).
The partnership marks the first step by the US company to work with Taiwanese supply chains to commercialize cutting-edge technologies.
However, KGI Securities Co (凱基證券) analyst Kuo Ming-chi (郭明錤) said he is more conservative about Qualcomm’s time frame for the technology, despite Qualcomm taking the lead in the Android market in offering facial recognition technology.
Shipments of Qualcomm’s 3D sensors are likely to grow significantly until 2019, as smartphone makers take a wait-and-see approach to adopting the technology, given higher costs and uncertainty over adoption of the facial recognition function, Kuo said.
China’s Xiaomi Corp (小米) could be the first smartphone maker to adopt the technology for its new flagship handset next year, Kuo said in the report.
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