14 DAY TRIAL // Apple hopes the iPhone would become a device you really can’t live without at some point in the future, and living proof is a recent patent imagining how the smartphone can replace our personal documents live ID cards and driver’s license.
The patent is called Document importation into secure element and describes a way for an iPhone to use a short-range radio chip, like NFC and RFID, to store embedded information issued by a state authority, including here names, addresses, and pretty much any other detail regarding one’s identity.
This information can be then read at a later time by state authorities using dedicated devices, but only if the iPhone owner gives their permission. This means the process needs to be approved using the typical methods, like Face ID, password, or fingerprint, though this last option is being ditched on new iPhones.
Long-term goal
Apple explains that drivers’ licenses and even passports could be replaced with such an implementation if it ever reaches mass production.
“In one embodiment, a computing device includes a short-range radio and a secure element. The computing device reads, via the short-range radio, a portion of credential information stored in a circuit embedded in an identification document issued by an authority to a user for establishing an identity of the user,” the patent reads.
“In some embodiments, the identification document is a passport that includes a radio-frequency identification (RFID) circuit storing the credential information and the request specifies a passport number read from the RFID circuit.”
As with everything still in patent stage, there’s no confirmation this technology would ever reach mass production, and even if it does, Apple has a lot of work to do with state authorities to make this happen. However, don’t be too surprised in Apple pursues this idea on the long-term, especially because this may become a pretty convenient method for customers to prove their identity.