Qualcomm’s New Snapdragon Chips Enable Android Smartphones with Always-On Front-Facing Cameras

[Tsing]

Image: Qualcomm



Smartphones with front-facing cameras that are always on and can’t be turned off might be just around the corner.



The disturbing possibility has been raised by The Washington Post, which shared a report today noting that Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon chip, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, includes a level of programmability that would allow companies to keep the front-facing cameras of future Android devices on at all times. This would be achieved via the platform’s new Snapdragon Sight collection of camera technologies, which includes a new “Always-On ISP” that lets cameras run with extremely low power consumption.



Qualcomm on its Snapdragon Sight technology:



This new premium mobile platform takes smartphone photography beyond pro. Snapdragon Sight Technology includes the first commercial 18-bit mobile ISP, capturing over 4000x more camera data than its...

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[Zarathustra]

Uhh...

This is pretty awful...

Why would you ever want this?

Guess I'm going to have to avoid all devices with Qualcomm chips going forward...

Using biometrics like face recognition for security is a really really bad idea either way. Making it a permanently on feature makes that a several orders of magnitude worse idea.

 

[Grimlakin]

If it includes an always on microphone too.. heck we probably already have that.

Only use case I see is for things like dash cams and such.

 

[Uvilla]

Its one small step in convenience, one giant leap in loss of privacy.

 

[MadMummy76]

If it includes an always on microphone too.. heck we probably already have that.

Yep, you already have that. Ever wondered why ads suddenly start showing up on webpages after you talked to some people about a topic?