Your next MacBook may have Face ID and a 3D light sensor

Code included with the latest update to builds of macOS Big Sur suggest that FaceID and/or TrueDepth camera tech are coming to the Mac. MacBooks and iMac computers could very well get their own 3D depth-sensing cameras in the very near future if what this code indicates comes to fruition with what's called "PearlCamera."

Within the code harvested by 9to5Mac this week, Big Sur contains mentions of FaceDetect, BioCapture, and PealCamera. That report asserts that these codes were included in macOS Big Sur beta 3.

If we take a peek at the Apple pantent "Light Recognition Module for Determining a User of a Computing Device." filed on September 25, 2019 and made public in March of 2020, we see a laptop computer with an included "light pattern recognition module." With this module, the next generation of desktop computing on an Apple computer can commence.

Later this year Apple will start releasing MacBooks and/or desktop machines with their own processors inside. This opens the door for Apple's ability to run iOS apps on macOS with the greatest of ease. With this major change coming to devices like future MacBook Pro notebooks, including Face ID with 3D-sensing cameras are just the tip of the iceberg.

The possibilities are extensive – imagine how much a MacBook would benefit from the ability to run any app currently available on the latest iPad and/or iPhone. With social distancing as the new normal, Apple might be in a prime position to make the Next Big Thing a notebook that handles all the activities most young people use a phone for today.

Imagine SnapChat on your desktop machine with a camera that's more powerful than the camera on your iPhone. See a future where your MacBook Pro can 3D-scan your face so you can use it for your avatar in the next big MMORPG. Things might get weird, very quick!

It's also worth noting that biometric scanning on MacBook machines isn't entirely new. In-display Touch-ID patents, fingerprint scanning in the latest models, and more – macOS has been in the biometric game for a while now. It's the patent released