Ever since the iPhone X was revealed, we've heard reports of about limited availability. According to a new report from Bloomberg, the major holdup for iPhone X production isn't the OLED screen but Face ID and the components it requires to function. But Apple is pushing back on the report.
The 3D sensor used for Face ID sits at the top of the handset and consists of three main components: a dot projector, a flood illuminator, and an infrared camera. Together they highlight the face (flood illuminator), detect the presence of a face (infrared camera), and ID the face using 30,000 projected dots (dot projector).
The dot projector uses a vertical cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) made of gallium arsenide, which sits behind a glass lens. Both components are quite thin and fragile, meaning mass production requires overcoming lots of problems.
According to Bloomberg, initial yields of usable Face ID components were thought to be as low as 20 percent coming out of LG Innotek and Sharp. Apple apparently responded to that by lowering the specification for Face ID and therefore the accuracy, which in turn made the components easier to manufacture and yields increased. It is unknown how much lower the accuracy of the system is, but Apple says there is a "one in a million chance" of defeating it.
In a statement, Apple said "Bloomberg's claim that Apple has reduced the accuracy spec for Face ID is completely false and we expect Face ID to be the new gold standard for facial authentication."
Cupertino continued: "Face ID is a powerful and secure authentication system that's incredibly easy and intuitive to use. The quality and accuracy of Face ID haven't changed. It continues to be 1 in a million probability of a random person unlocking your iPhone with Face ID."
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Bloomberg, however, believes the trouble is because the company refused to allow extra development time for the final Face ID system. In just over a week, when iPhone X arrives on Nov. 3, we'll see how things shake out.
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