iPhone 17 Pro Is iPhone supposed to use IR/FaceID/TrueDepth when taking selfies or front cam videos?

[uacd]

Dear forum users,

So I’ve upgraded to 17 Pro because of accidentally cracking display for second time on my 11 Pro. On 11 Pro I’ve had my Face ID disabled, so I continued that on my 17 Pro as well.

Yesterday I’ve noticed that when I shoot videos or take photos with front camera my eyes get tired fast and I feel some sort of weird dry eye effect. As I am susceptible to digital eye strain, I was surprised that phone doesn’t give me lots of issues vs my old 11 Pro, and I didn’t even have to enable PWM smoothing in accessibility.

I also took selfie videos with my cat and noticed that cat’s eyes were totally red in camera preview. I understood that camera is now having “mini LIDAR” on the front too. For some unknown reason cat started growling during video recording which never happens. I immediately stopped recording and will probably not do that once again.

I took another smartphone and recorded video of 17 Pro’s selfie camera at work, small and constantly flashing red lights were visible on the recorded video. Same thing happens if you record LiDAR sensor on the back.

I wonder if I am imagining it all or now Apple uses IR/laser as a focus assist for selfies? Not that I am much of a selfie shooter and I can just put a sticker on FaceID and LiDAR, but I am still wondered why Apple says literally nothing about that feature, provides no software way to disable that as well as when this behavior first started and which iPhone was the first to introduce this weird “feature”, because my 11 Pro doesn’t seem to have it. Google says that it was introduced with iPhone X, weird but I hadn’t noticed that in older XR or regular 11 too.

I mean, what’s going on? Maybe eye strain that many people are dealing with actually goes not from OLED or PWM but from literal laser bombarding eyes each time Face ID is used or selfie taken?

I know it sounds weird and I am not saying “you know I am 100% right, Face ID is destroying our eyes”, but I am still not a fan of weird infrafed laser being used when I don’t want to

 

[maerz001]

We discussed the „weird laser bombarding eyes topic“ since the iphone X.
Yet in 8 years not a single report of eye injury with hundreds of millions of users. Strange…

 

[Artemiz]

As @maerz001 said above, Face ID was first introduced in iPhone X and not much has changed in terms of IR blasting. It’s a critical part of mapping out your face and the attention aware features.
I’ve had 11 Pro since launch and then 13 Pro and now 17 Pro. Always had Face ID and attention aware features enabled which means the “IR blasting” is happening even after the device has been unlocked. Everyone in my family and extended uses an iPhone including the kids and none complained about eye strain.

While some people are sensitive to some wavelengths visible or otherwise, I don’t recall anything being an upgrade in terms of rear camera or selfie camera except for the front sensor being square for the first time.

 

[uacd]

I am interested in how IR sensors are now used in selfie camera. As I said, I don’t care about Face ID and had not enabled it at all, but I don’t know how to take a selfie without camera using these sensors. I’ve checked with another camera and red dots that are usually used for Face ID are clearly seen when you turn front facing camera on. If someone needs I can post examples

 

[maerz001]

I read somewhere when u put snake oil on the dynamic island it will block the laser

 

[uacd]

I read somewhere when u put snake oil on the dynamic island it will block the laser

Haha, that’s an interesting idea but I won’t be testing that😂