The mess Google has with face unlock in the Pixel is one of the biggest. Originally, the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro were going to have face unlock, like many other Android phones, and until the last moment the marketing of the devices took it over.
[El Google Pixel 6 Pro ya puede contar con una de las exclusivas funciones del Pixel 7 Pro]
However, at the last minute the feature was removed and users rely on the fingerprint reader for biometric unlocking, a problem exacerbated by the poor quality of said player on the latest devices.
Unlocking by facial recognition on Pixels
The reality is that Google has been trying to roll out a face unlock version in new Pixels for months, but hit a major roadblock: poor front-facing camera quality. The Pixel 6, in particular, does not support two-pixel autofocus, which makes it possible to obtain depth maps and therefore to recognize the characteristics of a face; Although the Pixel 6 Pro is capable of this, Google chose not to implement facial recognition only in the more expensive model.
That’s because Google’s plan is to offer face unlock on all of its devices, even if it has to invent something for it. If the problem is that the Pixel 6’s camera doesn’t offer enough information to 100% guarantee that the face is ours, the solution may be to get more data some other way.
The idea that Google is working on is use the fingerprint reader at the same time as the camera, but reducing the precision with which it is necessary to unlock the device. In other words, we will have to put our finger on the reader, but the finger will not have to adapt perfectly to the registered fingerprint, which will significantly speed up the unlocking process.
The big problem with the fingerprint reader
That would kill two birds with one stone. By combining face unlocking with fingerprint unlocking, the mobile ensures that it is really us who are trying to enter; and at the same time, the reduced accuracy will cause faster unlocking process, something all Pixel 6 users will appreciate. Another advantage is that this method can also be implemented in cheaper mobiles like the recently launched Google Pixel 6.
The disadvantage of this system is that it cannot be compared to a “real” face unlock like FaceID on iPhones, which only uses our face data to remove the lock screen. In fact, in practice, it would not change much, since you would have to put your finger on the reader.
So this is more of a fix for fingerprint reader issues than proper face unlocking, which can only be done with the right hardware.
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