Apple patent filing involves ways to improve Face ID on its various devices

Apple has filed for a patent (number 20230019065 A1) for “identifying objects within images from different sources.” It involves enhancing Face ID on the company’s various devices. 

About the patent filing

Techniques exist for performing facial recognition using an image of a person’s face. For example, a mobile phone camera may capture an image showing a portion of a person’s face. An application may analyze the image to determine characteristics of the person’s face and then attempt to match the person’s face with other known faces. 

However, Apple says that facial recognition is a growing field and various challenges exist related to performing recognition. For example, there are many types of cameras which may capture a variety of images. Apple says sometimes it can be difficult to accurately recognize faces when provided images from different cameras as input. The tech giant wants to overcome such limitations.

Summary of the patent filing

Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent filing: “Techniques are disclosed for providing a notification that a person is at a particular location. For example, a resident device may receive from a user device an image that shows a face of a first person, the image being captured by a first camera of the user device. The resident device may also receive, from another device having a second camera, a second image showing a portion of a face of a second person, the second camera having a viewable area showing a particular location. 

“The resident device may determine a score indicating a level of similarity between a first set of characteristics associated with the face of the first person and a second set of characteristics associated with the face of a second person. The resident device may then provide to the user device a notification based on determining the score.”