Samsung is developing a facial recognition camera system; Check out for more

Samsung may be developing a facial recognition technology that is rather intriguing. two under-display cameras are used in one. Samsung mentioned it in a patent application that was submitted to KIPRIS (Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service) in March 2021. The concerned material was made available last week and was published in a Dutch magazine.

The basic concept is simple: take many pictures of the person from different angles so that a 3D model of their face may be created that can be used for authentication. However, Samsung makes a point of mentioning the use of under-display cameras, which is intriguing in and of itself. The Korean juggernaut has largely been testing the technology on its Galaxy Fold series without a wider rollout up to this point.

So, one theory is that Samsung is looking at this new dual UDC technology for their foldables. And although that may very well be the case, we think that the technology has wider applications and that the requirement for UDC cameras originates from the need to have the two cameras as far apart as possible in order to capture the user from two separate viewpoints. That could require mounting a camera towards the bottom of the phone, close to the area where the under-display fingerprints are now located. Possibly even combine the two optical modules into one.

Not a lot of details are provided in the patent. A model of a typical “slab” style phone with two UDC cameras—one on top and one at the bottom—is nonetheless displayed. The patent also includes a measurement of pupil size. According to the theory, a human’s pupil size should change based on the illumination. This might be used as an additional security step to prevent face authentication from being hacked using tools like photographs or masks.