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Facial Recognition Via 3D-Sensing Growing Trend in Phones, Says Himax CEO

3D-sensing facial recognition, beginning with the iPhone X, “is gradually becoming a new industry trend” in smartphones, said Himax CEO Jordan Wu on a Thursday earnings call. Major Android smartphone OEMs are beginning to integrate 3D-sensing into their “flagship models,”…

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though most such projects are still in the “development stage,” he said. The company announced the feature last year in collaboration with Qualcomm. The leading Android smartphone makers are trying to “strike a good balance” between cost and performance in choosing among the “various 3D-sensing technologies” available, said Wu. More software players also are entering the “ecosystem” to develop new 3D-sensing apps in the fields of facial recognition, online payments and “camera performance enhancement,” he said. Himax is “in partnership with several leading smartphone names” to help enable their 3D-sensing initiatives, “depending on the customer’s needs and their in-house capabilities,” he said. Himax hopes “these efforts will facilitate a broader adoption of 3D sensing” on Android smartphones starting next year, he said, and is targeting “premium” smartphones for product launches scheduled for 2019's first half, he said. Of the various 3D-sensing technologies available, Wu thinks the active stereoscopic camera option has a “better chance” than others of “accelerating 3D-sensing adoption” for facial recognition on Android smartphones.