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iPhone X Face ID under strong sunlight
- Thread starter Nikiforidis
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Dave245
macrumors G4
I tried to use FaceID underwater and it FAILED, Apple has effectively STOLEN my thousand dollars and I will immediately switch to Samsung unless I receive a full refund and a new iPad Pro.
drdanick
macrumors newbie
No question is silly! 🙂
From what I know, it's possible for IR laser projectors to cause eye damage, but to what extent has to do with the power of the diode, and how collimated (close to beam-like (like a laser pointer), rather than scattered (like a flashlight)) the projected light is. Although the dots from the iPhone X are likely to be fairly collimated, they will probably be at such a low power that they won't pose any potential danger.
Don't take my word on any of this though. I'm not a doctor, and my past research (Computer Vision) didn't really need to concern itself with consumer safety. Additionally, I wasn't able to find any ratings for the dot projector in the iPhone X, so this might be better answered once it's released and we know more about the actual hardware.
Hmmm… Mildly concerning, then, perhaps. Now, as well as sticking microwave transmitters in both our ears (AirPods), we're all going to be periodically lasering our eyes on a daily basis. It does all make me feel rather uncomfortable, I have to say…
The Verge's review did mention that certain environments affected Face ID's functionality possibly due to IR interference.
OP's question turned out to be a very good one.
OP's question turned out to be a very good one.
Yeah from watching the Verge's quick review it looks like there are issues with FaceID working under strong sunlight and fluorescent lighting. I think it's all very funny...simply because first gen and I felt there would be some issues with this. Maybe software can help but to me it seems to be a hardware limitation that will need to be addressed in the 2018 iPhone's.
Half the sunlight is IR. They use 940nm because water in the atmosfere filters that wavelength somewhat. (Red is ground level).
The Game 161
macrumors Nehalem
He’s the only one who has said it
Rene from imore said there’s been no issue for him
Folks, lets remember that the Verge is "guessing" at the issue that is causing his FaceID problems. I know on the internet there tends to be a witchhunt mentality where the first assumption on a cause is taken as gospel going forward.
While his explanation is plausible, it may not be the root cause of what he is experiencing. The root cause could be anything from dirt on the camera through sunscreen applied to his face and anything in between.
If you truly believe that first gen FaceID truly has "no issues"... I'm not sure what to say in reply to that. It's going to have some issues.
Hoosier317
Suspended
The person who wrote it is already backtracking on Twitter. He’s the only one to have cited a problem. Even other reviewers have gone out of their way to disagree with his initial claims.
The Game 161
macrumors Nehalem
It’s not to work 100% what does?
But from his testing there has been no issues in direct sunlight. Different to what verge guy is saying
TouchID now that it has been refined. That's my point, though. It took some refinement and updates to the tech. I just believe this will need the same and that's okay.
Others are mentioning other reviewers saying it has some issues, so looks like not just one. We seriously shouldn't be surprised. I'm certainly not.
The Game 161
macrumors Nehalem
Wish that were true
Touch ID is a pain on my 7 plus. Sometimes lags and doesn’t work for 4-5 secs. To me this is an ios 11 issue but issues with Touch ID still happens.
This is an iOS 11 issue... it began with, I believe, iOS 11.0.2. It has been fixed in dev beta 11.2 b1...
Maybe this is a software issue in regards to FaceID but you'd think they would launch it with no software issues. There weren't any TouchID software issues when iOS 11 launched. There were hardware issues when TouchID launched, though.
I dunno... personally I expected there to be hardware limitations/issues with new technology (FaceID) because this was the case when TouchID was new. It'll get better with time.
I assume this was posted because the one guy in a review said there were problems in sunlight right? My take on this, is look how he was using it. He was aiming up at the sky from a low point up to his face. Sun was right behind him blowing the image out I am sure. This is no different than taking a pic of something with the sun blowing it out from the back. I dont think it will be as big an issue as everyone thinks it will, but again its a camera essentially. Use common sense.
Well, not really if you look at it in the context of other reviewers that have used it in the sun or responded to him on twitter saying they had no such similar problem. The guy from TechCrunch took the phone to Disneyland, which could definitely be described as having good variable lighting conditions for real testing and reported that it worked as often as TouchID does. "I was in the sun" is a very obvious stab at identifying the cause, but it could be a whole bunch of things. The one that concerns me the most is that with talk of the supply and manufacturing issues with this part of the device is that some of them will work better than others.
it wil have problems in direct sunlight. I would consider myself quite knowledged on IR/lighting in general since light/lasers have been a hobby of mine for quite some time. However just like Touch ID there are fixes. Where touch ID didn't work with wet fingers, Face ID will work less in direct sunlight. It can probaly be easily solved by just turning away from the sun or by moving the device closer to your face. It will cause annoyances though, i can pretty much guarantee that.
When iOS 11 first launched? No, there weren't. Regardless, I'm talking about hardware here since it's my belief that the FaceID tech/hardware just needs to mature a little. Not sure what you're going on about lol
I truly hated the wet finger thing. I thought maybe it was just me.
TouchID is also hit and miss. Slightly moist finger tips? Fail. Slight oils on finger tips? Fail. Gloves? Fail.