The Galaxy S8 will likely feature facial recognition via an iris scanner
There’s been much debate regarding what new features Samsung will introduce alongside the Galaxy S8. We’ve seen the new “Infinity Display” and its bezel-less design. However, we’ve also heard rumors of a new personal digital assistant by the name of Bixby, which will take on the likes of Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant.
A few rumors have also claimed that the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus will bring back a feature which was introduced with the Galaxy Note 7. In an effort to increase the security on our devices, Samsung introduced an iris scanner, which was built-into the front camera on the device, and according to the latest batch of rumors, this will be coming to the S8.
But the buck doesn’t stop there, as Samsung is said to be adding facial recognition to the devices, to increase speed and reliability. One Samsung official is quoted as saying the following:
“Due to some limits of iris scanning such as speed and accuracy, we have decided to add facial recognition to the Galaxy S8. With a face scanner, it will take less than 0.01 seconds to unlock the phone.”
Iris scanning and facial recognition still seem more of a gimmick to me, but if Samsung can actually make it as fast as placing my finger on a scanner, then I’ll definitely reconsider. Obviously, there are more security benefits with iris scanning versus using your fingerprint, but it’s all about implementation on our mobile devices.
We’ll learn more about these rumored features on March 29th when the rumors come to fruition as Samsung unveils its 2017 flagship lineup.