Apple Vision Pro Headset to Utilize Optic ID for Sign-In Through Eye Tracking

Apple’s upcoming Vision Pro headset will revolutionize security measures in the company’s products by utilizing a unique approach that involves your eyes. The mixed reality device will incorporate the highly anticipated Optic ID system, which will analyze your irises through undetectable LED light exposure and cross-reference it with your registered eye data to authenticate your identity. This feature can serve as a substitute for passwords and enable you to make transactions on the App Store or through Apple Pay.

The company guarantees that your eye data is encrypted and isolated in the headset’s Secure Enclave. It never leaves the device and is not accessible to apps. As with Face ID and Touch ID, there are no photos or real ways for hackers to abuse the raw data.

Optical ID comes together with the privacy protection of other Vision Pro headphones. Neither Apple nor anyone else has access to your eye tracking data. Camera and sensor data is processed at the system level, so apps can’t peek into your environment just to enable spatial functionality. And if you’re taking photos and videos, there’s a visual indicator to alert people around you. You may not have to worry about a public outcry à la Google Glass.

Iris scanning is not a new information security concept. Samsung introduced iris scan logins with the ill-fated Galaxy Note 7, for example. It’s a relatively new idea for headphones and is appreciated if you don’t want to use a keyboard (real or virtual) to launch the headphones or a specific app. This is especially important given Apple’s ambitions: it sees Vision Pro as the beginning of a “spatial computing” platform where you can spend hours in mixed reality, and amenities like Optic ID could make that platform more attractive.

See all the news from Apple’s WWDC 2023 event here.