Described in a patent registered as early as 2015, a new biometric authentication system uses "pulsating radiation" to penetrate below the skin, observing details normally hidden from view.
Far from being harmful, the system uses powerful infrared light pulses to expose the blood veins immediately below the skin. Distributed differently from one person to another, the vascular system can serve as a biometric signature very hard to fake.
Used in tandem with existing Face ID technology, the new biometric authentication system can substantially improve the security of facial recognition. For example, the "fingerprint" of the human face in the infrared spectrum is substantially different even in the case of identical twins. In addition, the combined use of two biometric scanning technologies would nearly make impossible the task of forging facial features.
It is worth mentioning that the infrared scanning technology of the blood veins already exists and is used successfully by most smartwatch devices to measure the pulse. But from here to remote scanning of the entire face is a long way.
At present, there are no concrete indications that Apple would prepare a facial recognition sensor capable of taking the impression of the vascular system, but if that would be the case, the patent granted ensures the exclusivity of the American company to use this technology.