Galaxy S9 To Feature Face ID? Samsung AI Gets Facial Recognition Technology

Samsung Electronics has revealed that its Internet of Things or IoT platform now has facial recognition technology. Does this mean the South Korea tech giant could be incorporating a Face ID-like feature to its upcoming Galaxy S9 flagship?

On Thursday, South Korean online news outlet Etnews learned that Samsung’s IoT platform, called “ARTIK,” has absorbed a technology that will allow its to recognize faces based on machine learning. This means Samsung products that support its IoT platform could also be capable of recognizing users through facial recognition.

Samsung has also said that the machine learning of ARTIK can recognize faces with the help of Microsoft’s “MS-Celeb-1M,” a large scale real world face image dataset that already contains images of 1 million people. Apple’s biggest rival also proudly shared that the accuracy of its IoT platform’s facial recognition is at 91 percent after learning.

Unfortunately for Samsung fans who want the tech giant to include facial recognition in its highly anticipated Galaxy S9 flagship, that is very unlikely to happen. Samsung is applying this new machine learning technology to its home security solutions and appliances and not to its smartphones.

“By linking machine learning and computing technology for face recognition, they can be applied to various fields such as home security devices or home appliances, and solutions for detecting unusual signs,” a representative has said of Samsung’s new technology.

Last November, rumors swirled that Samsung won’t be copying Apple’s advanced 3D facial mapping technology for the iPhone X, called Face ID. At the time, Business Korea learned from sources that Samsung was planning to implement the same face recognition technology that it used with the S8 onto the Galaxy S9. The same type that uses 2D sensors instead of 3D sensors present in Apple’s 10th anniversary iPhone.

Samsung’s facial recognition technology on the Galaxy S8 is one that is mainly used to unlock the smartphone. It isn’t smart enough to be considered reliable and secure, so it doesn’t work with mobile payments. It simply serves as an alternative to other basic unlocking methods like pin, password and pattern, as per CNET.

While the Galaxy S9 isn’t going to launch with a 3D-sensing facial recognition technology, Samsung has confirmed that it will sport a better iris scanner. Korea Herald learned last month that the iris scanner on the S9 will have 3 megapixels, slightly bigger than the 2 megapixels on the S8. In addition, it is supposed to work faster than its predecessor and be capable of recognizing the eyes of the user even when he or she is wearing glasses.

Samsung is expected to unveil its Galaxy S9 flagship offering at next month’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 in Barcelona. Based on a new report the upcoming flagship device from Apple’s biggest rival is going to sport Samsung’s newest AI chips. A recent leak also suggests that the S9 could debut with the same size battery as the S8’s. Hence, the phone could be housing a 3,000mAh battery