OPPO and Xiaomi on the way to achieving facial recognition

The iPhone X brought relatively new technology to the world in the form of its Face ID. Apple’s facial recognition technology, while not revolutionary, has improved on existing tech, with the biometric security system boasting of slightly more impressive metrics than any other existing competitor, albeit at the cost of some convenience.

Last week, we did a report on an agreement between MediaTek and its Meizu best-buddies that would see Meizu devices in 2018 offer a facial recognition system comparable to Apple’s Face ID. Meizu and MediaTek aren’t the only ones jumping on that train, though, as Xiaomi and OPPO are also working on their takes on the technology, in collaboration with hardware manufacturers Qualcomm. 

This comes after Qualcomm agreed a US$12 billion dollar deal with OPPO, Vivo, and Xiaomi, so there’s a chance that facial recognition technology was a part of the agreement. OPPO and Vivo are basically sister companies, as it is, with both of them—alongside OnePlus—being under the umbrella of the BBK Electronics mega corporation. As such, we expect this technology to also be found on Vivo devices whenever it’s perfected. No surprise, really, as Vivo has been a front-runner in a number of smartphone technologies, most recent of those being the under-display fingerprint sensor which is yet to be released.

Speaking of fingerprint sensors, the potential facial recognition technology being developed by Xiaomi and OPPO is not expected to replace fingerprint readers, as the latter is still seen as being more convenient for end users.

Huawei is also working on its version of Face ID, albeit in collaboration with Sunny Opticals. Another hardware company, Ophelia Micron is also reportedly working on the same thing, with the aim of bringing the technology to a number of smartphone manufacturers around the world.