When Apple purchased fingerprint security startup Authentic this summer, many began speculating that its biometric technology could make its way to the iPhone 5. Of course, the iPhone 5 announcement came and went without so much as a peep about biometric identification. But a handful of patent applications, especially one published Thursday, indicate Apple is certainly exploring the idea.
How a biometric sensor could be discreetly placed on an iPhone.
This latest patent, ambiguously titled “Devices and Methods for Providing Access To Internal Component,” describes how “an image capture device, a strobe flash, a biometric sensor, a light sensor, a proximity sensor, or a solar panel” could be hidden under a display window that could selectively become transparent or opaque depending on if the component is being used. This enables additional components to be added to the device without leading to a “cluttered” or unattractive appearance.
Although such technology could give future iOS devices a super slick appearance whether they’re glass, aluminum, or heck, even Liquidmetal, it’s the mention (and illustrations) of biometric sensors that piqued our interest.
Biometrics is not a new area of invention for Apple. In 2010 for example, Apple was granted a patent for a method for fingerprint identification on a tablet device. This patent was originally filed way back in 2005, before the iPhone or iPad publicly existed.
Realistically implementing any sort of biometric identification is actually a bit of a feat.
“You have to have the right software, powerful enough for all these background calculations on the fly, and a very robust and low latency network to grab all that information and authenticate it,” IHS analyst Wayne Lam told Wired. “The current technology is kind of not very user-friendly and not very accurate.” Thus, so far we’ve seen biometrics only in limited scenarios in limited markets, such as enterprise laptops. However, biometric technology has been more widely deployed in Japanese products.
But since fingerprint-level security isn’t really necessary outside of enterprise or government sectors, Apple could take a different approach. “What Apple may do with some of the IP from the firm they acquired is integrate it into the natural use scenario,” Lam said. Indeed a patent granted Tuesday for a two-step unlock homescreen could be one such application. And fingerprint scanning is not just useful for security; it could also be used to easily allow multiple profiles on a single mobile device.
Even if that is the end goal, and even if this is something Apple is actively working on, we would likely not see finished applications of this technology for years — if ever.
Wired
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