Apple's new patent is revealed: Macs may support Face ID and gesture recognition in the future

[ Gearbest Technology News]Recently, an Apple latest patent application was exposed, revealing the possibility that Mac computers may be equipped with Face ID and advanced gesture recognition technology in the future.

Apple Mac computer

This patent describes in detail a solution to detect user gestures through LiDAR and event camera systems, aiming to improve the accuracy and efficiency of human-computer interaction. Although the full text of the patent exceeds 12,000 words and does not directly mention Face ID, its core technology relies on the dynamic capture of the user's face and hands by the front camera, which is highly consistent with the implementation logic of the existing Face ID. At present, Face ID has fully covered the iPhone and some iPad product lines, but the Mac series has always been absent.

Apple patent application details

Patent documents show that Apple plans to solve the pain points of traditional gesture recognition through “dual cameras working together”. Normal frame cameras are difficult to capture fast hand movements due to frame rate limitations, while event cameras can record pixel-level changes in real time, significantly improving dynamic tracking speed. But the problem is that the event camera generates massive environmental data, resulting in a decrease in gesture recognition efficiency.

To this end, Apple proposed a “bounding box” solution: first distinguish the user from the background through a frame camera, and then focus on the hand activity area for data analysis. Patented pictures show that the system can accurately select the user's palm and supports manipulating the virtual reality interface through gestures, suggesting that it may be used in immersive interactive scenarios for AR/VR headsets or future Macs.

The main reason why Macs are not equipped with Face ID is considered to be that the notebook screen module is too thin and cannot accommodate sensor components. But it is worth noting that Apple's upcoming foldable iPhone and ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air may have broken through the body thickness limit in terms of body shape, which provides a technical reference for Mac to be equipped with Face ID.

magicCubeFunc.write_ad(“dingcai_top_0”);