Apple Granted Embedded Face ID Patent, Tipped to Feature in iPhone 16 Series

Apple has been granted a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a next-generation feature which could replace Dynamic Island on a number of iPhone models. The notch design was introduced with the iPhone X, the Dynamic Island with the iPhone 14 Pro, while the iPhone 16 Pro is anticipated to include an embedded Face ID element just underneath the display. Although Apple has already had patents for embedded Face ID for several years and it was speculated that the technology would be included in this year's iPhone 15, it seems unlikely to happen this year.

According to the patent application, first spotted by Patently Apple, the Cupertino tech giant Apple noted that the new invention will include a display with a front and back surface. Multiple pixel areas will give off light from the front surface to display an image, and multiple openings will carry light from the front surface to the back surface comprising the display.

This device proposed by Apple includes a camera mounted on one side of the display's back surface. The camera is set up to take a captured image. A processor is connected to the display and the camera in the apparatus. To minimise image distortion prompted by the display, the processor is set up to accept the captured image and apply a first digital filter to the first part of the captured image and a second digital filter, different from the first digital filter, to the second portion of the captured image.

Display analyst Ross Young said that this embedded Face ID feature is likely to arrive in 2024 with the iPhone 16.

On the other hand, according to an analysis by Ming-Chi Kuo, the element would be restricted to iPhone 16 Pro models. This is coherent with Apple's growing policy of increasing the disparity between the base and Pro models, particularly in terms of display technology. For instance, in the iPhone 14 lineup, the base models retained the notch display while the Pro models received the Dynamic Island.

Kuo's claims were backed by a report featured in the Korean news site The Elec, which claimed that embedded Face ID will be confined to Pro models next year before making its way into base models in 2025.