LG will present its new flagship smartphone at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain later this month. Previously, a leak had revealed that the South Korean manufacturer would integrate one of the most sophisticated features of the new iPhone: 3D face sharing. Now the company itself has confirmed the name of the device, LG G8 ThinQ, and the addition of this biometric authentication feature.
In a statement, LG announced a partnership with German semiconductor company Infineon Technology to create its own 3D face recognition technology and integrate it into the LG G8 ThinQ. In this context, the company said that Infineon’s Real3 image sensor will be critical for this purpose to ensure that the new chip will drive the security innovation needed to unlock the phone and authenticate users correctly on payment.
Recently, it became known that the photographic part of the LG G8 would include a selfie camera configuration with two lenses. Today’s announcement confirms that one of these cameras has a Time-of-Flight (ToF) technology that offers similar features to the iPhone’s FaceID unlock. Chang Ma, vice president and product manager of LG Mobile, said in the statement:
With LG’s goal of delivering real value to its mobile customers, our new flagship has been developed from the ground up with ToF technology to provide users with a unique and secure verification system without sacrificing camera capabilities. With innovative technology like ToF, the LG G8 ThinQ will be the optimal choice for users looking for a premium smartphone with unsurpassed camera features.
One of the most interesting aspects of this feature has to do with the possibility that the ToF camera of the LG G8 can also be used to control the mobile phone through gestures. Although today’s announcement does not mention this feature, the description of this new technology suggests that gesture control seems more than possible. In addition, the LG teaser below for MWC 2019 virtually confirms this.