Mike Rundle, Medium:

Much has been said about the huge updates in iOS 11 (huge for iPad, less so for iPhone) but few articles have really dug into what face unlocking would mean, beyond the obvious that you’ll be able to verify your identity and unlock your phone with your face.

I think this will be the flagship feature of the new iPhone, and will let Apple leapfrog competitors with futuristic face-scanning sensors that will have a gigantic impact on the future of augmented reality.

Mike digs into face scanning and AR, interesting stuff, but my favorite part of his post occurs when he digs into the evolution of the selfie.

Over the last 2 years, the consumer tech world has gone crazy over selfie lenses that superimpose objects and effects over your picture, or distort it directly like a funhouse mirror.

And:

When the new top-end iPhone comes out, it’s rumored that both the front and rear cameras will support the recording of 4K resolution video at 60FPS, which is an incredible leap beyond today’s FaceTime HD camera that records at half the resolution and half the framerate.

And:

Because this new high resolution camera will sit right next to an incredible infrared face-scanning sensor, developers won’t have to sift through mountains of image data to figure out where someone’s face is, they’ll just use the data coming off the 3D sensor to know unequivocally where someone’s most minute facial details are in 3D space, which will blow the doors off what is possible with augmented reality today.

The point here is that selfie AR is about to undergo an evolutionary quantum leap. Imagine putting hyper-accurate scary clown makeup on your face that looks painted on, even as you turn your face. Think realism, vs the look of standing behind a cardboard cutout, moving and squinting until the overlay looks kinda in place.

There are some terrific images that go along with this story, so go read it as Mike laid it out. Great observations.