Apple patents method for bringing FaceID and gesture recognition to Macs

Aug 8, 2018, 1:21 pm EDT | Chris Burt

Apple has been granted 52 new patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, some of which describe the adoption of the depth mapping system used by the iPhone X by Mac desktop computers for facial recognition and in-air gesture recognition, Patently Apple reports.

Some of the patents set out a method for processing data by creating a depth map with a matrix of pixels with depth values. A processor extracts a curvature map from the depth map, and then segmented to extract three-dimensional coordinates for one or more limbs of the person using the system. Extracting high-level information from depth maps is challenging, according to Patently Apple, due to the difficulty of separating objects from each other and the background by the processor.

“As another example, the computer may apply a face detection algorithm at step 92 in order to detect the subject’s face of depth map,” Apple notes toward the end of patent 10,043,279, which was originally filed in Q3 2016. Yaron Eshet, Senior Computer Vision and Machine Learning Scientist at Apple Israel is listed as the sole inventor of that particular patent.

This new patent incorporates a series of other patents, which relate to gesture control for Macs and smart televisions.

Apple is reportedly launching multiple new iPads and iPhones with FaceID this year.