14 DAY TRIAL // The most recent leaks have shown that Samsung is moving the fingerprint scanner on the back of the Galaxy S8 right next to the camera, in a position that’s pretty hard to reach with any finger, and it’s all happening because of the company’s efforts to make bezels smaller.
Apple is planning to do the same thing and for the same reason, but in the case of the Cupertino-based firm, the iPhone 8 could feature a location for the fingerprint sensor that makes much more sense: inside the display.
While this isn’t the first time we hear about such a tech, a new document confirms that Apple has been looking into this implementation since 2015, but the firm has only now been granted the patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Specifically, in its attempt to remove the Home button, and consequently the fingerprint scanner, Apple is switching to a technology that relies on 3D Touch and a built-in display scanner for the whole thing. And what’s more, Cupertino is aiming for a little bit more with this implementation. Here’s an excerpt from the patent:
“Where a fingerprint sensor is integrated into an electronic device or host device, for example, as noted above, it may be desirable to more quickly perform authentication, particularly while performing another task or an application on the electronic device. In other words, in some instances it may be undesirable to have a user perform an authentication in a separate authentication step, for example switching between tasks to perform the authentication.”
Faster, simpler authentication
While at first glance it all seems to be a tech description that’s hard to decipher, it all comes down to this: whenever the user touches the screen to perform a certain activity requiring the fingerprint scanner, he’s no longer prompted to scan the fingerprint because the process is already being performed automatically in the background.
For instance, should you want to purchase an app from the App Store, whenever you tap the buy button, the fingerprint is automatically scanned, so there is no point in prompting you for another scan. This speeds up the whole process without compromising security in any way, and absolutely makes sense on the next iPhone.
Of course, this means that fingerprint scanning should basically work in any region of the display, so whenever you touch the screen, the iPhone should automatically be able to check whether you’re granted owner permissions or not.
Since this is a patent, there’s still no confirmation that Apple is ready to offer this technology on this year’s iPhone 8, but it’s very clear that the firm has been looking into fingerprint scanners integrated into the display for quite some time now. So it’s all probably just a matter of time until it happens.