Can The iPhone X / iPhone 8 Recognize You Without Makeup?

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The iPhone X / iPhone 8 hasn’t even been announced yet, and already people are worrying about being locked out of their phones if they engage the facial recognition feature that’s expected to replace the fingerprint reader. Tech gurus have been quick to say that this is unlikely to be an issue, but it’s hard to know the right answer to this concern because the new iPhones won’t even be revealed until later today  (catch details on the live stream of the event here).

Concerns raised about facial recognition in the iPhone X / iPhone 8

A quick search on Twitter will show that many people are actually worried about this potential problem on a phone that hasn’t even been revealed. Women in particular are concerned that the facial recognition on their iPhone X / iPhone 8 won’t be able to recognize them if they are or aren’t wearing makeup, depending on which photo they use for the facial recognition lock. Others are concerned that they won’t be able to change up the way they do their makeup and that they’ll have to create the same look every day just to keep from being locked out of their iPhone X / iPhone 8.

More than one Twitter user even pointed out that their current phone tags and groups them according to how they did their makeup or hair for the photo, seeing each of their different looks as an entirely different person.

Why experts say this won’t be an issue

Most of the people who are worrying about the facial recognition feature on the iPhone X / iPhone 8 are current iPhone users, and 9to5 Mac describes the photo-matching feature in iOS as being “performed using a fairly crude 2D pattern-match.” However, the iPhone X / iPhone 8 is expected to use 3D face modeling that measures various features on a face instead of factoring in things like makeup. Thus, experts don’t expect makeup to be a problem when it comes to the facial recognition lock on the iPhone X / iPhone 8.

Early reports about the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 reveal that its Face Unlock feature can be tricked easily using a 2D photo of the phone’s owner. It sounds like most people expect Apple’s version of this feature to work a lot better, but users will be even angrier if they get locked out of their smartphone because it can’t recognize their face.

We should finally get to see the iPhone X, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus in a little over an hour when Apple management give their keynote speech. It’s expected to be chock-full of new gadgets, so stay tuned for new details, if the weekend leak of iOS 11 code didn’t spoil all the surprises, that is. The Apple Store went offline early this morning in preparation for the new products to be added later today.

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