Selfie camera on LG G8 ThinQ to offer fast, accurate facial recognition

A press-release issued Thursday by LG (when it was still Wednesday night in the states) says that LG and semiconductor firm Infineon will partner up to equip the LG G8 ThinQ with a front-facing Time of Flight (ToF) camera. Instead of using algorithms to compute the distance between the subject of a selfie and the lens, ToF tracks the time it takes for an infrared signal to bounce off the subject and return to the source. Not only will the LG G8 ThinQ use ToF 3D mapping for face recognition, but it also will give the selfie snapper on the flagship "unmatched camera capabilities."

ToF provides a faster and more accurate measurement, uses less energy, and asks less of a phone's chipset. The technology can be used for 3D face mapping used in facial recognition systems. There is speculation that when Apple offers a rear-facing TrueDepth camera on the 2020 iPhone models, it will use ToF technology instead of the structured lighting system currently used on the front-facing TrueDepth Camera.

ToF is also cheaper and easier to manufacture than structured lighting. With the later system, a pattern or multiple patterns are projected on a subject while the camera is recording. Since the software knows what the patterns look like on a flat surface, it can make a 3D map of a person's face by making computations about the distortions of the projected patterns.

We're sure to hear much more about the G8's ToF camera and its abilities on February 24th when the phone is going to be introduced.