Samsung’s next flagship smartphone will almost very likely feature Face ID-like facial recognition and tracking technology. The company has announced that its new flagship application processor, the Samsung Exynos 9810, with a new neural network-based “hybrid face detection” technology.
Samsung traditionally announces its flagship processors months ahead of their debut on a Galaxy S smartphone, and it’s the same case here. The Exynos 9810, which is already in production, will be Samsung’s flagship 2018 mobile processor built on the 10nm process.
In terms of raw performance, Samsung states that the Exynos 9810 is two times faster in single core performance, and 40% better in multi-core performance compared to its predecessor. At its heart is a new eight-core CPU, consisting of four high-performance cores with clock speeds of up to 2.9GHz, and four high-efficiency cores. The Exynos 9810 will also be embedded with the industry’s first 1.2Gbps LTE modem, which is also the industry’s first Cat 18 LTE modem.
Meanwhile, a dedicated image processor and an upgraded multi-format codec (MFC), Samsung promises even faster photo and video processing, with up to 120fps UHD recording and playback. Even more impressive is the MFC’s ability to render 1.07 billion colours – 64 times more than the previous best of 16.7 million – resulting in wider colour range and increased colour fidelity.
But what will definitely pique interest is in the deep learning capabilities on the new Exynos 9810. Deep learning features allow the processor to recognise faces and items in photos for fast image searching and categorisation – those who use Google Photos will be familiar with this. In addition, with the proper hardware onboard, the Exynos 9810 also enables hybrid face detection, allowing 3D face tracking as well as stronger face unlocking mechanisms. The processor also retains the biometric signatures from the user’s face, iris, and fingerprint in a separate processing unit within the processor.
It won’t be too far-fetched to see the Samsung Exynos 9810 make its debut on the upcoming Galaxy S9 expected to release soon.
