If the iPhone 17 gets this rumored Face ID upgrade, I'll never call Apple unoriginal again
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An in-display face scanner could be on the way. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Apple has been granted a patent for a new technology that may finally enable the long-rumored embedding of an under-display Face ID system in the iPhone, perhaps as soon as the iPhone 17 series.
![[iPhone 16 Pro in hand]](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/q7sViEX9LvNoCfGosJSPL9-320-80.jpg)
The patent details a new possible workaround to the issue of getting infrared light – which Face ID uses to scan and verify your face – through the pixels beneath the glass of a phone screen. Essentially, Apple’s latest idea is to remove only a piece of each individual pixel affected, called a subpixel. Subpixels display either red, green, or blue light, which combine to form one of millions of colors at viewing distance.
![[Jamie Richards]](https://vanilla.futurecdn.net/cyclingnews/media/img/missing-image.svg)
The patent maintains that, in theory, there should be no difference in the final image with selected subpixels removed, as the removed subpixels will be aligned with neighboring subpixels of the same color. The document also notes that parts of the touch-sensitive mesh could be removed to allow for better infrared passthrough, and that these would be too small to affect touch responsiveness.
Though it’s best to not draw conclusions until we see this technology implemented, it seems as though Apple is looking to develop a more granular version of the technology that Samsung uses in the under-display selfie camera of the Galaxy Z Fold 6 – removing only the necessary components of the display to allow light to pass through.
