Upcoming iPad To Sport A 3D Face Recognition Feature

The 3D facial recognition feature is quite rare in the smartphone market and only a handful of devices boasts of this feature. Ever since iPhone X launched with a 3D face recognition feature instead of a fingerprint scanner, there have been speculations that the new iPad will also come with a 3D Face recognition feature. Recently, an iOS developer, Steve Troughton-Smith, found new evidence in the new iOS 12 test firmware: AvatarKit for iPad, which is the framework on which iPhone X Animoji 3D dynamic expressions depend.

Prior to this, only the iPhone X firmware included the AvatarKit framework, and the TrueDepth camera real-time face tracking was required to implement the Animoji expression. The evidence shows that iPads with similar hardware are in the works. This means that Apple is preparing a new look for the iPad, perhaps using a similar TrueDepth camera system like the iPhone X. According to KGI analysts, the new iPad will be released in the third quarter of this year.

A follow-up tweet from @_inside suggests that the facial recognition feature user interface is already active on iPads but there are still a couple of bugs as it is still in the works.