Frontal camera - why is it needed and how to use it?

Today, smartphone manufacturers are trying to "outperform" each other, adding new modules and hardware functions to their devices. For more than 5 years, a phenomenon known as a front camera has been known on the mobile market. Previously, the front cameras had purely decorative or auxiliary purposes. In particular, they were used on female mobile phones to perform the function of a mirror, with their help it was also possible to easily take a self-portrait. However, the full potential of the front cameras was not used until the emergence of a new generation of mobile equipment.

Representatives of this new generation are modern smartphones and tablets. Most of them are controlled by the Android operating system. In these devices, the front camera is mainly used for video communication. However, in them video calls became possible not at once. Despite the early appearance of the Skype application for Android, not all Android devices supported it. Similarly, not all Skype devices correctly recognized the second camera. Because its use was practically reduced to zero, except that you could take pictures of yourself.

Having received a lot of negative feedback about the incompatibility of applications for video communication with smartphones, the developers of the operating system took into account the shortcomings and, since the third version of android, the front camera has found its application. Among the various means of video communication the most popular was the Skype mentioned above, which is currently used by several million people.

Now the front camera is not just a means for video communication. There are many applications that also use it. Among them, several most interesting. First, the front camera is used to turn off the alarm. Downloading a special application-alarm clock, you can turn it off without pressing the screen or other commonly used methods, and with your hand over the camera. There are very unusual proposals. For example, the smartphone Samsung Galaxy S4 uses innovative technology that controls the front camera. Its essence lies in the fact that the camera recognizes the closing of the eyes. That is, if you fall asleep while holding a smartphone, it will automatically shut down, saving electricity. On the same smartphone is implemented this mode of operation, when you do not need to touch the screen to go to the next photo or change the track in the playlist. It is enough just to hold a hand near the screen. Such revolutionary opportunities open the way to the technologies of the future

The front camera is also used for more simple tasks. For example, on all Android smartphones, one of the customizable ways to unlock the screen is face control: comparing a face photo with a programmed original. For this, of course, a front camera is used. There are also special applications that allow you to use the front camera of your smartphone as a webcam for your PC.