Vivo unveiled a new 3D sensing technology during MWC in China that might be coming to real-world devices other than smartphones.
For smartphones, it will be used for facial recognition. Vivo’s iteration promises 10 times more accuracy as compared to Apple’s Face ID, which might open up applications other than just smartphones.
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Time of Flight
The company calls it Time of Flight (TOF), as it measures the time it takes for the light to bounce back from the subject, and is able to make accurate measurements. This allows for better facial recognition, and can also be applied to gestures, motion tracking, 3D photography, and AR.
TOF can be paired up with software-level features and AI to enhance security even further and takes much less space than the sensors seen in the iPhone X and Xiaomi’s Mi 8 Explorer Edition. Vivo’s sensor operates in a simpler way, unlike Structure of Light-based sensors, that work by picking up light patterns from the subject’s face.
Blows Apple Out of The Water
TOF sensors have 300,000 sensor points – 10 times more than Apple’s iteration – which makes 3D recognition more secure and effective. It’s more reliable, and can effectively be used for educational purposes, 3D scanning, recreating objects in a digital environment, and even in medicine.
Vivo says that it has been testing extensively and its solution meets industry standards, so a commercial product that comes with this technology might get launched soon. 3D recognition is set to become a standard part of future smartphones as most OEMs such as Oppo (for the Find X) have already replaced fingerprint scanners with 3D facial recognition.
