“On July 18, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals the technology behind their new fingerprint sensor which will be used in a future fingerprint scanner for the iPhone and possibly other iDevices and Macs,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple.
“The technology revealed is from Apple’s acquired AuthenTec,” Purcher reports. “Apple’s interest in fingerprint scanners for the iPhone and Mac first surfaced in a 2009 patent application. Apple’s project was then advanced in 2012 illustrating that a fingerprint scanner could be combined with face or eye recognition (or Retina recognition) to enhance security needs.”
“Then in May of this year, Apple revealed yet another patent filing describing a fingerprint scanner that could be concealed beneath a touchscreen and only surface when needed in a particular application. One of Apple’s last patent filings on this subject matter revealed that a fingerprint scanner could also be hidden within a future MacBook or an iDevice bezel,” Purcher reports. “Apple appears to be covering every conceivable application for a future fingerprint scanner. At the end of the day, the race is on to find new authentication methods that will provide users with a secure e-commerce transaction process within their hardware while simplifying the user login process.”
Much more, including Apple’s patent application illustrations and diagrams, in the full article here.
