Your next Samsung Galaxy phone could have Face ID-beating facial recognition tech if Metalenz’s claims hold up
The future of ultra-secure facial recognition may finally be coming to Android phones thanks to Metalenz, a tech company focused on an advanced quantum-level imaging technique.
Apple’s Face ID has been the gold standard in facial recognition technology for smartphones for almost a decade, and so far Android manufacturers haven’t responded in kind.
Samsung, arguably the Android leader, currently offers facial recognition in the Samsung Galaxy S24 which, it says, can still be fooled by “someone who looks like you or uses an image of your face.” Not exactly confidence inspiring.
This week, however, Samsung teamed up with Metalenz to bring its new Polar ID to future smartphones.
βOur collaboration with Metalenz is not just about combining technologies; it marks a pivotal advancement in biometric imaging capabilities, making face unlock solutions with enhanced security and affordability accessible on a global scale,β said Samsung VP of Sensor Sales & Marketing in a press release. .
The power and security of Face ID are the result of the two-step facial recognition process: there is a sensor to recognize the face and then a second sensor pass that uses detailed point projection and a 3D sensor to identify the face as a living human.
Unlike Samsung’s existing facial recognition technology, you can’t fool Face ID with a photo. In all the years I’ve tested the iPhone with Face ID, the only time I could fool it was with identical twins. Apple noted at the time that this was the only way it would be possible to trick its biometric technology: with two people who share nearly identical DNA.
Polar ID wants to be more than equal to Face ID. Metalenz claims it is potentially more secure than existing technologies. When I asked the company how Polar ID could surpass the capabilities of Face ID, the company clarified its respect for what Apple has achieved.
In an email response, a company representative wrote: “We agree that Face ID provides a very high level of security that is currently unmatched in the mobile industry. We believe that matching the security of Face ID is a great achievement considering Apple’s many years of continuous improvements.”
The company also outlined key benefits over Face ID. Apple’s facial recognition software will work with a partially masked face, although Apple warns that full facial recognition is the most accurate. βFor Polar ID, our solution can maintain the high level of spoof rejection (2D or 3D mask rejection) as long as enough of the face (especially the area around the eyes) is visible to perform accurate facial recognition,β de Metalenz wrote . representative.
Metalenz also claims that Apple’s structured lighting solution struggles in direct sunlight (there are some online reports about this). The company claims this is because direct sunlight can interfere with the IR laser point projection the system uses for 3D mapping. βThe Polar ID solution, on the other hand, can actually benefit from bright sunlight because it will increase the reflection of polarized IR light from the face, strengthening the signal instead of weakening it,β the Metalenz representative wrote.
While I can’t directly confirm Metalenz’s claims β as Polar ID has yet to appear on a smartphone β I can confirm that the technology is very different from Face ID.
Instead of a two-step process to identify and verify faces, Polar ID combines a few advanced technologies to recognize a face and the signature of a person’s skin.
One of Metalenz’s core innovations is the use of meta-optics or nanophotonics, where light manipulation goes beyond lenses and metasurfaces. These surfaces are much smaller than an optical lens and can manipulate light using nanostructures.
Metasurfaces are able to sort the polarized photons, which Metalenz’s custom algorithms read to create a specific face β or even skin signature. Metalenz claims that his technology is so effective that not even a life mask on someone can fool him.
Now Metalenz is one step closer to producing Polar ID and possibly bringing it to Samsung Galaxy phones to collaborate with Samsung to use its ISOCELL Vizion 931 image sensor. Unveiled late last year, the ISOCELL Vizion 931 stands out for its global shutter that allows it to capture full images instantly (rather than scanning line by line).
Samsung built the image sensor with applications like Polar ID in mind, noting last year that the sensor is “optimal for iris recognition, eye tracking, and facial and gesture detection in head-mounted display devices such as XR headsets.”
Even if Polar ID isn’t more effective than Face ID, the technology will certainly be a boon for Android phones. Fewer components mean lower costs and more room for other technologies, such as more powerful zoom cameras.
At the very least, Polar ID should allow Samsung to remove those embarrassing caveats from its facial recognition technology and perhaps put it on a level playing field with the iPhone, where owners use Face ID not only to unlock the phone but also for authentication , passwords, and countless mobile purchases.