Apple's facial recognition tech could be coming to iPads next
Apple's face-scanning tech could be coming to a new product in the near future.
The company will add its TrueDepth camera, which enables the iPhone X's Face ID and talking emoji tech, to next year's iPad Pro, according to an industry insider.
The prediction comes from KGI analyst Ming Chi-Kuo, who has successfully called many of Apple's product moves in the past. According to Kuo, Apple plans to bring its face-scanning TrueDepth camera to more products in 2018.
On the tablet side, Kuo predicts the 2018 iPad Pro will come equipped with the camera. He doesn't say whether Apple plans to change up the tablet's design to accommodate the extra sensors, but Apple could integrate the new hardware without adding the iPhone X's "notch" design.
Notably, Kuo thinks Apple intends to reserve the feature for its higher-end iPad Pros, not the cheaper iPad Air or iPad Mini tablets. Given that the feature is currently limited to just the iPhone X, which is due out later this year, it makes sense that Apple wants to continue to maintain the TrueDepth camera as a more "premium" feature.
That said, Kuo also predicts that all future iPhones will ditch TouchID in favor of Face ID, beginning next year in 2018. That means those iPhones would also need to come with TrueDepth cameras and would very likely not include home buttons.
Either way, it sounds like Face ID is here to stay and could soon be difficult to avoid -- no matter how terrible of an idea it may seem.
Karissa was Mashable's Senior Tech Reporter, and is based in San Francisco. She covers social media platforms, Silicon Valley, and the many ways technology is changing our lives. Her work has also appeared in Wired, Macworld, Popular Mechanics, and The Wirecutter. In her free time, she enjoys snowboarding and watching too many cat videos on Instagram. Follow her on Twitter @karissabe.
