The Pixel 7 series is almost here and Google’s launch event is scheduled for October 6. However one doesn’t have to wait another week to find out everything about these two new phones from Google. A new discovery suggests that the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro may support a more secure face unlock feature – despite the lack of dedicated hardware like the iPhone.
But Google may have found a way to improve the security of the face unlock feature with just a front-facing selfie camera.
Google’s face unlock history
Reports in April hinted that Google was offering facial recognition support for its Pixel phones, despite abandoning Face ID-like technology. A few years ago, Google introduced its version of 3D face recognition technology. the Pixel 4’s face unlock is as secure as the iPhone’s Face ID. And it has a radar component, which is something Apple lacks.
The downside is that Google has had to compromise on the design of the Pixel 4. The phone looks worse than the iPhone’s notch, and the Pixel 4 has a huge ‘forehead’ bezel on top with all the face unlocking components inside.
The Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro will also get the same full-screen design as the Pixel 6 series with a hole-punch selfie camera. With that in mind, face unlock seems unlikely.
Specifically, it seems likely that Google will opt to support 2D face recognition, a feature that is much less secure than Face ID. And it was available on Android before Apple introduced the unparalleled Face ID feature.
Alternatively, Google may combine 2D face unlock with an under-screen fingerprint sensor to improve security.
However Google has just added the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro to the Google Play Console ahead of next week’s launch, and it’s there that Mishaal Rahman has discovered an exciting development regarding face unlock.
The way face unlock might work on the Pixel 7 phones
Both the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro phones support “android.hardware.biometrics.face”. According to Rahman, this means that these phones support secure face unlocking. Even so, this is not exactly similar to the 3D face recognition found on all iPhone flagships released since the iPhone X.
The only other Pixels with this feature are the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL, or the only phones from Google to include 3D face recognition hardware.
As for how facial unlock works on the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, we’ll have to wait for an official explanation. Google will use the selfie camera’s Dual Pixel Autofocus (DPAF) to create the depth map. In turn, this could lead to some kind of 3D face recognition.
The blog spotted Google’s progress with face unlocking on the Pixel 6 and 7 series back in June. Last year’s Pixel 6 Pro may also support the feature, thanks to a specific selfie mirror, the Dual Pixel Autofocus mode.
DPAF has been used to generate depth maps for portrait mode since the Pixel 2, and Google has been constantly improving its methods since then. The company also has algorithms for obtaining depth from motion, which only requires an RGB camera, while it believes Tensor can perform faster, more accurate and more power-efficient face detection in a photographic context. Google clearly has the hardware and software components for face unlocking.
This is just speculation, however, as Google has never explained this face-unlocking mystery. Next week, people will learn everything about the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro’s face recognition and how secure it is.
