Anticipation is very high for Apple's new smartphone that is believed to be the iPhone 8 as the company approaches the 10th anniversary of the iPhone line late this year. The most recent rumors regarding the iPhone 8 suggest that it might include a face recognition feature.

According to sources, an analyst from Cowen and Company known as Timothy Arcuri revealed that the iPhone 8 might include a facial/gesture recognition feature of sorts supported by a new laser sensor and an infrared, which is located near the front camera of the device. Arcuri also mentioned that it looks like iPhone 8 will include a wireless charging feature.

While this would be the first time that a new laser sensor is mentioned to be part of the iPhone 8, it does actually add up as Apple is known to have purchased Primesense in 2013, a company that specializes in infrared sensor. It is believed that a new sensor is indeed needed by the company, in order to support augmented reality features in succeeding devices.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has been known to be very open about including augmented reality in future iPhones. "It is a visual technology that interprets the world for you," research vice president at Gartner Brian Blau told Business Insider late last year. "If you think about augmented reality in that sense, it could be the next big grand computing platform. That has been the long-term promise."

"This is something you know it's coming," Piper Jaffray managing director Gene Munster added in the same report. "The only other times they've talked like this is before the iPhone came out, they started to indicate they could do something in the phone market. Before the Apple Watch came out they talked about wearables and the wrist being a better option."

The iPhone 8 is rumored to be released in September 2017 in time for the iPhone's 10th anniversary.