“The full-screen option would deliver much of the same utility as contemporary systems, enabling biometric authentication to unlock the phone or to access individual apps.”
Huawei is hoping to make full-screen fingerprint authentication a key feature of its future smartphones. The Chinese tech giant has filed patent applications in six different markets, and is now waiting to hear back from the US, the EU, Japan, Korea, and India in addition to its native China.
The technology will essentially turn the entire smartphone screen into a fingerprint sensor. As it stands, in-display sensors typically force users to place their thumb in a designated area of the screen for authentication. With the new setup, users would be able to place their finger anywhere on the screen, and the phone would still be able to verify their identity.
The full-screen option would deliver much of the same utility as contemporary systems, enabling biometric authentication to unlock the phone or to access individual apps. However, it does have the potential to provide a more streamlined user experience. For example, touching the icon for a specific app could allow users to open the app and verify their identity in one simple step, without needing to move their finger to a separate scanner. By the same token, they could touch a lock notification to jump straight to the appropriate service and respond to messages without pausing to unlock their phone.
While the feature is enticing, Huawei stressed that it is also optional, and that users will have the ability to deactivate the sensor in certain areas of the screen. Doing so is a power-saving measure, and is most likely to appeal to users who find that they consistently use the same portion of the screen.
At the moment, Huawei has not yet indicated when it will begin shipping commercial phones with the new fingerprint system, or who will provide the in-display technology. The company has previously relied on Goodix for its in-display fingerprinting needs, placing the latter’s optical sensor in its P40 series and its Mate 20 X in the past 12 months.
Huawei is not the only company interested in full-screen fingerprint technology. Taiwan’s AU Optics unveiled a similar full-screen system last May, while Precise Biometrics has predicted that it will soon be one of the biggest trends in the mobile market.
Content retrieved from: https://mobileidworld.com/huawei-files-patents-for-full-screen-fingerprint-biometrics-108114/.