THE NEXT TEN YEARS

Last month, Tim Cook introduced the iPhone X as the future of smartphones, just like Steve Jobs did with the original iPhone ten years ago. While the most stunning feature of the new iPhone X is its edge-toedge super retina OLED display, it’s actually its Face ID technology that could prove to be the biggest game changer. When Apple tted the iPhone X with an edge- to- edge display, it had to eliminate the home button – the  rst iPhone to do so. In its place, Apple replaced Touch ID with Face ID, a facial recognition biometric authenticator. Apple built an entire dedicated neural engine — based on a dual- core custom chip design — to process face recognition and tracking in real time. The result is a biometric authenticator that is claimed to be more secure than Touch ID. In fact, Apple says Face ID has a 1 in 1,000,000 chance of another person being able to look at your phone and unlock it, while Touch ID is just a 1 in 50,000 chance. More importantly, this overbuilt neural engine has further applications beyond just authentication. Apple demoed its facial tracking technology with its silly Animoji feature, but the possibilities for this tech are truly endless. To put things in perspective, the iPhone X with Apple’s neural engine is basically the equivalent of having a Microsoft Kinect in your pocket. Facial recognition is nothing new, just like many of the features before it. However, Apple’s approach and implementation is, and up till now, that’s proven to be the catalyst for change.