Apple iPhone 8 To Feature 3D-Sensing Selfie Camera That Also Doubles As Iris Scanner?

Apple impressed the tech community when it launched the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus last year because of the advanced camera technology the handsets were sporting. Now it appears the Cupertino giant is planning to do the same this year with its upcoming iPhone 8 handset. New information about the 10th anniversary iPhone is claiming that its selfie camera is far from just acting as a front-facing snapper.

Business Insider learned that in a letter to investors, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo wrote about the front camera of the next iPhone. Kuo is known to have a great track record of leaking accurate details about Apple products. According to him, the selfie camera Apple is making for the iPhone 8 has the capacity to sense 3D space. It is also said to have three major applications at launch: improved selfies, facial recognition and iris recognition.

The mention of iris recognition in Kuo’s notes is a tad surprising because some earlier reports have claimed that Apple is more interested in facial recognition that iris-scanning technology is not in the cards for the next iPhone. However, there were also reports on Apple eyeing the iris scanner to be the next biometrics feature of the iPhone.

“We think the advanced 3D front camera system will allow the new iPhone to perform 3D sensing and modeling,” Kuo pointed out in the letter before saying that the iPhone 8 selfie camera module will be produced by Sony. The module is believed to utilize an infrared transmitter and receiver as well as laser technology by Lumentum. “Future iPhones may come with a similar system for the rear camera,” Kuo quipped.

This new revelation about the iPhone 8’s front-facing camera comes after news regarding Apple’s acquisition of an Israeli cybertechnology startup surfaced over the weekend. The firm, named RealFace, is known for developing a cutting-edge software for facial recognition. The acquisition has since strengthened the belief that Apple is bringing facial recognition technology to its 2017 iPhone.