On September 13, 2024, Mark Gurman posted an Apple graphic illustrating the Face ID symbol on a MacBook. While many wrote it off as a mistake by the Apple artist, one must remember that Apple has already won a patent for Face ID on MacBooks and iMacs back in 2023 and today they’ve been granted their second patent for this feature.

Apple has been working on this feature since 2018. Microsoft's "Hello" facial recognition is lightning fast and convenient for PC users and Mac users have expressed their desire for this feature on MacBooks, especially because Apple now has the camera notch in place. 

Apple's granted patent relates to a biometric authentication module for authenticating a user of a portable computing device. In particular, the various embodiments relate to a light pattern recognition module that is capable of emitting a predetermined pattern of light at the user, and subsequently detecting a pattern of light that is reflected by the user for authenticating the user.

Apple's patent FIGS. 1A and 10 illustrated below show the traditional notch that supports a Face ID module that is enlarged in FIG. 4D.

In Apple’s second granted patent for Face ID for Macs, they’ve added 19 new patent claims zeroing in on a “Body-Assessment Classifier. Below is the newly added patent claim #1 emphasizing this feature as follows:

Claim #1: A method comprising: at an electronic device including one or more processors, a non-transitory memory, and a display: obtaining one or more images associated with a user, wherein each of the one or more images represents a different orientation of the user; providing the one or more images to a body-assessment classifier to generate one or more body-assessment vectors, wherein each of the one or more body-assessment vectors associated with a respective image represents quantitative physique and biometric assessments associated with the user, wherein the body-assessment classifier is trained using images of individuals from different views and annotation values representing a plurality of quantitative physique and biometric assessments associated with the individuals in order to produce body-assessment vectors based on image data; displaying, on the display, a body-assessment indicator that is based on the one or more body-assessment vectors; receiving one or more body-assessment target inputs specifying one or more body-assessment targets, wherein the one or more body-assessment targets include a first target dimension for a first body part and a second target dimension for a second body part; generating a target visual representation of the user based on the one or more body-assessment vectors and the one or more body-assessment targets; displaying, on the display, the target visual representation of the user; overlaying, on a first portion of the target visual representation that corresponds to the first body part, a first indicator to indicate that the first body part satisfies the first target dimension for the first body part; and overlaying, on a second portion of the target visual representation that corresponds to the second body part, a second indicator to indicate that the second body part does not satisfy the second target dimension for the second body part.

For more details including the other 18 new patent claims, review granted patent 12141937.