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Sooner or later we knew we'd reach this point. Apple's newly revealed iPhone X is the first $1000/£1000 smartphone, arriving with a slew of features and technologies that have already been trialled in mainstream gaming with varying levels of success. The new phone brings with it a state-of-the-art HDR OLED display and features augmented reality gaming capabilities, but the real star of the show is its front-mounted Face ID camera assembly. Yes, remarkably, Kinect technology is back - miniaturised and repurposed, but based on the same principles.Multiple cameras are built into the iPhone X's distinctive 'notch' that cuts into the edge-to-edge display. This assembly includes a standard camera, IR, a 'flood illuminator' and what Apple calls a 'dot projector'. The basic idea is the same as Kinect though - to use depth sensors to build a 3D model of the user's face, with the other cameras used to create textures that can sit upon that model. The use of IR also means that - like Kinect - the device should work in all lighting conditions.
There's even a degree of overlap in functionality: specifically, biometric sign-in. Microsoft had a vision for a controller-less console interface and on iPhone X, this manifests in the removal of the home button. Just as you could sign-in to your Xbox by standing in front of the camera and waving, iPhone X does the same job in much the same way by lifting the device and tilting it towards your face, initiating a facial scan that unlocks the phone.
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