By Kim Yoo-chul
Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics have put smartphones with three-dimensional (3D) sensing technology in their development pipeline, two people who are familiar with the issue said, Thursday.
“We are forecasting cautiously there is going to be a few billion dollars in the 3D sensor market just for smartphones in the next few years. That is going to be on both the iPhone and also on Android mobile. We are working on it,” said one senior engineer at Samsung, asking not to be identified.
He said Apple may expand its flagship smartphone lineup equipped with 3D sensing technology in the first half of next year, at the earliest, followed by Android manufacturers. Last year, Apple released one model with a front-facing 3D camera.
Samsung, the world's largest smartphone vendor, is planning to prioritize improved viewing quality on mobile devices as it is concerned more with software integration rather than hardware expansion.
“Having deepened the depth information from smartphones at various angles is the thing Samsung believes is one of the next appealing points to customer enthusiasm in the mobile phone industry is showing signs of declining,” said the Samsung engineer who is involved in 3D sensing mobile business projects.
On a related note, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, a component affiliate of Samsung, which Samsung Electronics procures key components for use in its Galaxy-branded flagship smartphones, said to investors in January that the parts unit was planning to improve its 3D sensing technology to a level that will be commercially available by the first half of this year.
A 3D sensor or 3D camera is something that captures 3D depth information. A user's left hand side is what the user typically sees from conventional 2D cameras which gives the user color and brightness information. Whereas the right hand side shows the user what a 3D camera would get the user, there is no color, there is no brightness. It's only depth information.
Why 3D sensing?
The key rationale is that the technology is truly expandable. In the automobile industry, major car players such as Tesla are still working on developing 2D cameras in autonomous vehicles. Also, Samsung and other tech giants are investing more for artificial intelligence to derive 3D information based on what users see in a conventional 2D camera. The market is very promising and the outlook is bright, said market analysts.
“3D sensing isn't completely new. But what we are seeing today is the beginning of a major adoption of 3D sensors in smartphones. We understand that; however, the key issue is that the cost is still too high and perfect software integration hasn't been prepared,” said an official at LG Electronics.
Samsung and LG said they are making significant progress this year and next year _ 2019 _ is when they think the Android camp will again follow what Apple is doing by placing both front and back 3D cameras on their phones.
LG Electronics remains tight-lipped about its plans to show off even a prototype of its upcoming smartphone that supports 3D sensing technology at this year's IFA technology fair to be held in Berlin, Germany.