“LG Innotek has developed an under-glass fingerprint sensor module, allowing users to unlock their smartphones without rubbing a specific fingerprint recognition button,” Lee Min-hyung reports for Korea Times. “This will bring a paradigm shift in smartphone design, as the module won’t require an existing circular or rectangular fingerprint sensor button, the world’s largest smartphone camera module maker said in a statement, Sunday.”
“On top of that, the button-less fingerprint module will also help handset manufacturers to improve such features as waterproofing and dust protection,” Lee reports. “‘The new module is expected to drastically reduce any smartphone malfunctions, as it does not require a specific button for fingerprint recognition,’ said a spokeswoman. ‘We are in talks with some handset manufacturers to commercialize the new modules within the year.'”
“The company said the new module came as the company has succeeded in developing a technology to attach a fingerprint sensor into a 0.3-millimeter (mm) space under smartphone’s glass face. LG Innotek can customize the under-glass module for any handset manufacturer upon their request, the company said,” Lee reports. “The electronics parts maker of LG Group said the module’s security level is also on par with that of existing button-type fingerprint module, as the in-glass fingerprint module comes with a 0.002 percent of error rate.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The day of the iOS virtual Home button is quickly arriving.
LG Innotek is a current Apple supplier.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Jaribbs” for the heads up.]
Didn’t Samsung already destroy that silly fingerprint scanner thing with Android users already. Slightly serious. I was talking with a friend at a bar about how we liked the fingerprint scanner on our 5s’s when another friend said he could not get his to work and quit using it. I asked him what kind of phone he had; he replied Samsung. We both simultaneously said “that’s why”, good laugh. When Samsung put the fingerprint scanner that LG stopped using because it was almost useless most people thought it was a quick me to reaction. I believed it was to make their customers think that all fingerprint scanners must suck and not switch. The new LG tech sounds great but there may still be back end problems. I believe that you need the speed of 64bit to make it work. It could be one of the reasons the LG/Samsung were such crap. Has any Android phone gone 64bit yet? Oh yeah there is that secure enclave thing too. LG and Samsung will put out this new feature and tech writers will say it’s so much better than Apple; then Android fanboys will complain how slow it is; and reports will come out how people’s fingerprints got stolen; then regular Android users will believe that all fingerprint scanners are crap; then Apple will be doomed; and Tim Cook must be fired.
Even to this day, many laptop users reckon that all trackpads are rubbish because they’ve tried using them on PC laptops and simply assume that Apple’s trackpads must be just as bad.
I found this out firsthand last year.
I’ve enjoyed using Apple’s trackpad for the last decade. Last year, I had to use a PC laptop for work, and it was frustrating to get anything done with the trackpad instead of a mouse.
As a developer, I test a lot of laptops.
On the PC side of things I have experienced a couple of truly exceptional trackpads – that is PC exceptional and par, compared to Apple.
The problems are many for most track pads. Multi touch isn’t quite righ. It must be a response time thing, which Apple has put a top priority on – under 100ms. Also the travel distance, for click registration is an issue. The insistence that there’s a left and right section to the track pad is a problem.
PC touchpads will register two finger right click, but with the right button area, the pad gets confused. Also there seems to be a sensitivity issue where pads will register a click, when none is intended. “Tap to touch”. I could go on.
Apple, has all aspects of the touchpad, nailed down. You have to address all aspects or user confidence goes down.
This will be another reason for the news media and tech critics to claim Apple has fallen behind in innovation even before the first LG screen fingerprint scanner is put in actual use. Any new technology whether it works well or not will be thrown at Apple as being something much better for users than Apple can do. I’m not saying that this new technology is or isn’t better than what Apple has to offer. I’m only saying the news media is going to rub Apple’s nose into the dirt as far as new technology is concerned no matter what.
Authentication, either passcode or biometric, is useless against a determined attack without something like Apple’s secure enclave to hold the keys. Without this, Do any android devices have anything similar?
The Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) as documented in the implementation guidelines on the Android Open Source Project site used in the Nexus 6P is probably the closest right now.
According to an article at SixColors the Secure Enclave may not be as untouchable as we were led to believe..
https://sixcolors.com/link/2016/02/the-secure-enclave-is-no-protection-from-a-court-order/
Things aren’t looking promising for 3D touch.
Apple failed to support it on the iPhone SE and I doubt that this screen based fingerprint sensor would either.
Apple has an old patent for this from years ago, so sounds likely to me.
I have an iPhone 6s+. I can not get the fingerprint sensor to consistently work. I have given up trying. Likewise I have given up on the remote for my Aple TV 4. I use the remote that came with the Apple TV 3. Every time I try the remote 4 I get really angry. And 3D Touch is silly. Sorry to be so negative. I have had Apple products since 1984 and will continue to use Apple products but sometimes one just has to let off steam.
I think you need an Apple Watch just to check you are still alive.
I have an Apple Watch and I love it! I have three iPads. Both my wife and I have iPhones and iMacs.
If I’m not mistaken Apple already had patents on similar lines years back…I read it on MDN itself I believe.
This sounds HIGHLY specious:
“The electronics parts maker of LG Group said the module’s security level is also on par with that of existing button-type fingerprint module, as the in-glass fingerprint module comes with a 0.002 percent of error rate.”
I’ll believe it when I see it. I can’t imagine this type of fingerprint reader is remotely as good as Apple’s. I’ll be closely scrutinizing this tech IF it ever goes commercial. It’s a nice idea that sound remarkably unrealistic.