Many smartphones constantly listen to the user’s voice and the voice assistants are always on call. After the initial skepticism, many people are used to it, but very soon it can take a step forward. If Qualcomm has its way, the next generation of smartphones will be equipped with a permanently active camera that is monitored by algorithms around the clock.
Qualcomm introduced the latest generation of Snapdragon a few days ago, which one would like to stand out with due to the increasing competition and brilliance with features. The fact that the processor or SoC isn’t really that interesting to the end users doesn’t necessarily make things easier for the company. Now rush forward and have him Snapdragon 8 first generation About the new possibility working closely with the smartphone camera:
Your phone’s front camera is always looking for your face, even if you don’t touch or lift it to activate it.
This statement comes from Qualcomm Product Manager Judd Heape and is meant to emphasize one of the new Soc’s touch points and strengths. The chip is optimized so that the camera is constantly active, records the image in the buffer, evaluates it and searches for the user’s face. And we are not talking about pictures taken every second, but according to statements from a real live photo.
This should bring a speed advantage over the current implementation. Because until now, smartphone cameras for facial recognition only turned on when the device was picked up. So in the end we are talking about saving time at most from half a second to one second.
A camera that records all the time is a whole different story than a microphone that listens constantly – especially on a smartphone. No wonder there is so little enthusiasm in all the media reporting these plans. It’s entirely possible that this will become a norm within a very short time that people assume and no longer bother with it, but as of today, something like this will likely be rejected.
What is the strength of Qualcomm?
Now it’s important to remember that Qualcomm is nothing more than a supplier – albeit a powerful one. The chip can constantly evaluate the camera image, but ultimately control over it lies with the smartphone manufacturers and Google as the Android developer. However, the announcement indicates that this feature is indeed a fact supported by some smartphones. One has to wait and see what happens to him.
It would also be interesting to see how something like this fits in with Google’s new protection functions in Android, which warn against such processes that are listening for the microphone and the camera…
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