Apple will be rolling out their iPhone X with an OLED Display and an all-new 3D face side camera that will be used for Facial Recognition authentication. Older technologies were easily fooled with a simple photo of a person. The next-generation of facial recognition will use a 3D camera with a mix of custom algorithms to ensure that the one staring at the camera is actually a real living person. This generation of facial recognition is now elaborately being promoted at a KFC restaurant in China as our cover graphic clearly illustrates. Yet the nagging question remains: Is it really a secure system?

A new report by Reuters today describes the new 'Smile to Pay' technology from an affiliate of Alibaba that owns China's number one payments system Alipay with over 53% of the market.

The Alibaba Group affiliate known as 'Ant' said that their system offers the first commercial application for Smile to Pay worldwide. Ant's director of biometric identification technology, Jidong Chen, said in a statement that "Combined with a 3D camera and liveliness detection algorithm, Smile to Pay can effectively block spoofing attempts using other people's photos or video recordings and ensure account safety."

Of course the security of their facial recognition system could still be in question because as a "safety measure" restaurant clients wanting to use the system have to first enter their personal phone number for the system to work.

That's an added step that plainly says that the facial recognition system may still be fooled. A phone number is the equivalent of a personal security code. So yes it comes off as whizbang marking cool, but is it really a self-standing secure system? I'm not convinced.

Apple's Touch ID is essentially the same thing. Once you're signed in with your personal security code then your Touch ID allows you to get back in with only using Touch ID.

Will Apple do the same thing with their new whizbang 3D Facial Recognition feature? That is, will you still be required to enter a passcode to initially sign in and then only use the Facial Recognition to get back in after a period of non-use?

I'm sure that Apple will go all out to make their facial recognition system appear 'like magic' during their keynote, but will it really work without a passcode? Hopefully we'll find the answer to that question during their September 12 keynote. But something tells me that in the fine print that will come with your new iPhone X, you'll discover that you'll still be required to create a passcode first before the new facial recognition will work.

Oh, and one more thing: What part of "Smile and Pay" did the Chinese Patron in the photograph below not get?

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