Your phone camera is the lens to tech future

From Infra-Red Facial Recognition To Virtual Furniture Try-Outs, Mobiles Set To Get Smarter

We all know the drill. For the last decade, smartphones have gotten thinner and faster and thinner and faster and, well, you get the picture.

But it’s too soon to write off our smartphones as boring. For a clue as to what the smartphone of the future might look like, turn your attention to the device’s cameras and the software and sensors that make them tick.

Here’s a peek into how the camera may come into play: As soon as you pick up your gadget, it will see you and know you are the owner and unlock the screen. Overseas, you will be able to point the camera at a restaurant menu to translate items into your native language. When shopping for furniture, you can point your phone camera at your living room floor and place a virtual rendering of a coffee table down to see how it looks. Some of this futurism is already starting to happen.

Next month, Apple plans to introduce new iPhones, including a premium model that can scan 3D objects — including your face. Samsung also recently introduced the Galaxy Note 8, highlighting its fast dual-lens camera as the signature feature. And rivals will soon work to catch up.

How would phones scan your face? The so-called depthsensing camera system Spectra by Qualcomm, a chip maker that provides components to smartphone makers, is one example of how it works. The system includes a module that sprays an object with infrared dots to gather information about its depth based on the size and the contortion of the dots. If the dots are smaller, the object is farther away; if they are bigger, it is closer. The system can then stitch the patterns into a detailed 3D image of your face to determine if you are indeed the owner before unlocking the phone.

Because of the uniqueness of a person’s head shape, the likelihood of bypassing facial recognition with the incorrect face is 1 in a million, said Sy Choudhury of Qual- comm. That compares with a false acceptance rate of 1 in 100 for previous systems.

There are, however, limitations. For example, objects that you wear, like a hat, might throw off the camera, according to Qualcomm. In addition, experts said infrared light can get drowned out by bright sunlight.

Philip-James Jacobowitz, a product manager for Qualcomm, said emerging camera technologies would be the key to stronger security features and applications for so-called augmented reality (AR), which uses data to digitally manipulate the physical world when people look through a smart- phone lens. All the tech giants are betting big onAR. For years, Microsoft has been developing HoloLens, an AR headset. In April, Facebook announced Camera Effects Platform, an environment for software developers to build AR apps. This week, Google unveiled ARCore, an AR tool kit for Android devices, in response to Apple’s ARKit.

Blair MacIntyre, a research scientist working on AR for Mozilla, said it has huge potential when it matures. He envisioned people being able to take a tour of a museum, pointing their phone cameras at a fossil exhibit to bring a dinosaur back to life.