Apple Face ID is a biometric authentication facial recognition feature added in the iPhone X that serves as a replacement for the iPhone 7‘s Touch ID fingerprint scanner as well as a more efficient alternative to the traditional means of entering a passcode or password on the smartphone.
Face ID is designed to unlock an iPhone X by identifying unique facial characteristics as it projects and analyzes more than 30,000 invisible dots that create a precise depth map of the user s face. In addition to unlocking the phone, Face ID can also be used to authenticate and pay for goods and services on the iPhone X, including Apple Pay, App Store and iTunes purchases.
How Face ID Works and How to Set Up Face ID
Whereas some facial recognition software can be “tricked” by doing things like putting a picture of the user in front of the camera, the iPhone X utilizes a TrueDepth sensor camera system that adds an infrared camera, dot projector and flood illuminator to the existing camera capabilities to provide a true 3D facial scanning system that greatly improves the accuracy of facial recognition.
For users that want to set up Face ID on their iPhone X or later device, the first step is to enroll your face for recognition by going to Settings -> Face ID & Passcode and then tapping Enroll Face. Your face will be displayed on the device (via the front-facing camera) within a circle of green tick marks. At this point your facial characteristics are captured, recorded and analyzed as you move your face around the camera s view to establish the baseline for future authentication use.
