A new patent filing by Apple (number US 20240346817) hints that Face ID may be coming to the Mac at last.
About the patent filing
The patent is dubbed “ Personal Computing Device Control Using Face Detection and Recognition.” In it, Apple says that one problem with existing personal computing devices is that they often perform certain functions regardless of whether users are passively interfacing with the devices.
In other words, personal computer devices are not able to determine whether a non-active or passive user is present and, subsequently, unable to perform certain operations to accommodate the passive user. For example, a Mac may automatically activate a screen saver every five minutes regardless of whether a user is viewing the computer’s display screen.
Apple says this means a passive user is often inconveniently required to actively perform an interaction with the Mac at least every five minutes to prevent the initiation of the screen saver or to deactivate the screen save after it is initiated. This means there’s a need for providing a user interface for a personal computing device that is capable of determine when a passive user is present without the need for active user interaction with the device. One solution could be bringing Face ID to the Mac.
Summary of the patent filing
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent filing: “Systems and methods are provided for control of a personal computing device based on user face detection and recognition techniques.”
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