Future iPhones may use a different in-display fingerprint scanner
Gadgets Now Bureau | Aug 16, 2018, 08:40PM IST
Apple last year brought a major change in the smartphone industry by ditching the fingerprint scanner (TouchID) and introducing face recognition or FaceID. This also led the company to bring a ‘notch’ onboard, a trend that was later followed by several Android OEMs. Now, the company has been granted a new patent that indicates the inclusion of an on-screen fingerprint sensor, something that we have seen in some Android handsets this year.
The patent granted by the USPTO suggests that Apple could be using a new method to get the in-screen fingerprint display working. The smartphone is not mentioned using the optical image scanning technique or the expensive ultrasonic system that is rumoured to arrive in Samsung Galaxy S10.
The patent talks about a dielectric sensor along with other overlapped sensors and a light source to make the in-screen fingerprint work. This will let Apple generate a 3D fingerprint data.
For those unaware, the patent was filed back in January this year a month after the iPhone X was made available in select markets. The patent mentions Dale Setlak as the sole investor. Setlak joined Apple when the Cupertino-based tech firm bought Authentec, a biometric firm back in 2012.
Although the patent has been granted by the USPTO, we may not see it coming in the upcoming 2018 iPhone models. There is a chance however, that the company may bring it in 2019 or 2020 iPhone handsets.
For this year, the three rumoured iPhone models will be featuring FaceID tech along with the notch. The handsets will essentially have the same ‘bezel-less’ design as the current iPhone X smartphone. According to a new report by TrendForce, two of the OLED iPhone devices coming this year will support Apple Pencil, an accessory that is currently supported by the iPad Pro models. They are also said to have 512GB inbuilt storage.
The patent granted by the USPTO suggests that Apple could be using a new method to get the in-screen fingerprint display working. The smartphone is not mentioned using the optical image scanning technique or the expensive ultrasonic system that is rumoured to arrive in Samsung Galaxy S10.
The patent talks about a dielectric sensor along with other overlapped sensors and a light source to make the in-screen fingerprint work. This will let Apple generate a 3D fingerprint data.
For those unaware, the patent was filed back in January this year a month after the iPhone X was made available in select markets. The patent mentions Dale Setlak as the sole investor. Setlak joined Apple when the Cupertino-based tech firm bought Authentec, a biometric firm back in 2012.
Although the patent has been granted by the USPTO, we may not see it coming in the upcoming 2018 iPhone models. There is a chance however, that the company may bring it in 2019 or 2020 iPhone handsets.
For this year, the three rumoured iPhone models will be featuring FaceID tech along with the notch. The handsets will essentially have the same ‘bezel-less’ design as the current iPhone X smartphone. According to a new report by TrendForce, two of the OLED iPhone devices coming this year will support Apple Pencil, an accessory that is currently supported by the iPad Pro models. They are also said to have 512GB inbuilt storage.
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