“The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 45 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple. “In this particular report we cover Apple’s clearest patent to date that Touch ID will be moving to beneath the display in the future, abandoning the Home Button.”
“Apple was granted a patent for this in May of this year,” Purcher reports. “The patent figure [below] from that patent clearly shows that Apple’s fingerprint technology working under an iOS device displays has been in the works for some time now – in fact as far back as 2009.”
“In 2015 an Apple patent application came to light indicating that the new fingerprint technology for under a display was coming to an OLED display just days before Apple began notifying their supply chain of their decision to switch to OLED,” Purcher reports. “Today, one of Apple’s latest granted patents spells it out that the fingerprint sensor should be placed under the iPhone’s display and away from the Home Button so as to ‘avoid assigning valuable surface space exclusively to a component that may only be used briefly during the process of identifying the user.’ It can’t get clearer than that.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: So, who’s ready for iPhones and iPads featuring edge-to-edge, top-to-bottom displays sans physical Home buttons? Sign us up!
SEE ALSO:
Apple granted key U.S patent for Touch ID fingerprint recognition integrated into Multi-Touch display – May 18, 2016
Apple supplier LG Innotek embeds fingerprint sensor into display – May 4, 2016
3D fingerprint sensors under Gorilla Glass may let Apple kill iPhone’s Home button – July 21, 2015
Apple working on eliminating the Home button on iPhone, iPad, sources say – June 22, 2015
Apple files for patent to move Touch ID fingerprint scanner from home button to display – February 9, 2015
Mind you at the moment its not only the button that is part of that overhang on iPhones. So i am reserving judgement but at least its going to be a step forward in that direction.
Why is there still a Home Button on the rendering?
Because that’s not what the patent is about.
I wonder if this would enable a more advanced touch ID?
Full palm print touch id on the iPad?