A beginner’s Guide To Biometric Features. Apple iPhone 5S With A Fingerprint Scanner?
The New Apple iPhone 5S With A Fingerprint Scanner?
A couple of days ago, at the
Samsung IFA event, Samsung released a new smartphone (the Note 3) and a totally
‘new’ concept: a smartwatch (the Samsung Galaxy Gear). Surprisingly,
considering the hype surrounding around a fingerprint reader/scanner, Samsung
didn’t include this highly anticipated feature in the new phone. Instead, they
introduced a new Air Command [1].
This failure (?) leaves a huge room for Apple. Indeed, tomorrow (on September
10), Apple is also about to release a new phone (the iPhone 5S) with (most
likely) a fingerprint scanner. It seems that Apple could end up being the first
smartphone player to deliver this next generation biometric security feature.
What’s exactly biometrics about? It is ‘the science
and technology of measuring and analyzing biological data. In information
technology, biometrics refers to technologies that measure and analyze human
body characteristics, such as DNA, fingerprints, eye retinas and irises, voice
patterns, facial patterns and hand measurements, for authentication purposes’[2].
Generally, a biometric device consists of:
- A reader or scanning device
- Software that converts the scanned information into digital form and compares match points
- A database that stores the biometric data for comparison
Since at least 1999, Apple Inc. is working very hard
on security patent applications and security features via biometrics for
iDevices. When you know that, according to Apple's CEO Tim Cook, 94% of the
Fortune 500 companies and 70% Global 500 companies are testing or deploying
iPads [3],
there is certainly a high demand for security.
New patent applications and rumors indicate that Apple
will most likely introduce a new unlock screen feature on the iPhone 5S that
will utilize higher integrated security features via biometrics (such as, fingerprint
scanner, retinal scans, facial recognition technology). Based on recent Apple
patent applications, these new biometric sensors/readers also could be
implemented in other iDevices, such as, ‘a laptop computer, a tablet
computer, a somewhat smaller device such as a wrist-watch device [interesting!], pendant device, headphone
device, earpiece device, or other wearable or miniature device, a cellular
telephone, or a media player. Device 10 may also be a television,
a set-top box, a desktop computer, a computer monitor into which
a computer has been integrated, or other suitable electronic equipment’[4].
Here is an image of the fingerprint features provided
by Patently Apple [5].
As you know, a patent application must contain, among other things, the
description of the invention, one or more claims, any drawings referred to in
the description of the claims and an abstract. Drawings often assist the reader
in understanding the specifications. In these Apple’s patent figures 12 and 13
shown bellow we see two types of biometric sensors (fingerprint reader). On
FIG. 12, one with a sensor located in an inactive area on the right side on the
“home button” (#24B and 34); and on the on FIG. 13, one reader incorporated in
the “slide to unlock” feature.
And here is another drawing (FIG. 1 [6])
explaining different possibilities/options (for instance, #27, #19, #14) for
biometric security sensors.
More precisely, ‘FIG. 1 is a front perspective view of
an illustrative electronic device of the type that may have a sensor or other
component with structures that may be used in near field communications in
accordance with an embodiment of the present invention’[7].
Whether or not this fingerprint reader feature will be
incorporated in the iPhone 5S is still uncertain (although a lot of rumors are
going in this sense [8]). However,
very recently, on September 6, the WIPO published a new European
patent [9]
filed by Apple Inc. where the fingerprint reader is incorporated into the ‘home
button’ with near field communication (NFC) technology [10],
allowing for dual modes of operation in a single space-saving design. Here is
the abstract [11]
of the patent:
‘An electronic device may have
electrical components such as sensors. A sensor may have sensor circuitry that
gathers sensor data using a conductive structure. The sensor may be a touch
sensor that uses the conductive structure to form a capacitive touch sensor
electrode or may be a fingerprint sensor that uses the conductive structure
with a fingerprint electrode array to handle fingerprint sensor signals. Near
field communications circuitry may be included in an electronic device. When
operated in a sensor mode, the sensor circuitry may use the conductive
structure to gather a fingerprint or other sensor data. When operated in near
field communications mode, the near field communications circuitry can use the
conductive structure to transmit and receive capacitively coupled or
inductively coupled near field communications signals. A fingerprint sensor may
have optical structures that communicate with external equipment’[12].
Here are the drawings (FIGS. 4 and 12).
Figure 4 is described in the patents as follows:
‘diagram of a sensor with a circular ring-shaped electrode surrounding an array
of electrodes in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention’[13]. The
two-dimensional array #206A can include up to 5,000 electrodes that can be used
to capture a fingerprint.
FIG. 12 is just a perspective view of the sensor
button.
It looks like more than rumors… isn’t is?!
Apple will unveil the next-generation iPhone 5S and
the low-cost iPhone 5C during an iPhone event ‘This should brighten everyone’s day’ tomorrow in Cupertino. We’ll
see what’s that all about…
Follow me on Twitter @tdubuisson or check my
professional profile on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasdubuisson
[1] For more info about these new products, I recommend you read
these websites: http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/04/hands-on-the-galaxy-gear-is-here-and-better-than-expected-but-is-that-enough/ and http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/4/4692824/samsung-galaxy-gear-features-specs-release-date-price
[7] Id.
[10] NFC ‘is a set of standards for smartphones and similar devices to
establish radio communication with each other by touching them together or
bringing them into close proximity, usually no more than a few inches’,
available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_field_communication
[11] ‘The abstract merely serves as technical information. It must
contain a precise summary of the disclosure as contained in the description,
the claims and the drawings and the technical field to which the invention
pertains’, G. TRITTON, Intellectual
Property in Europe, 3rd ed., 2008, pp.147-148.
[12] For my French friends: ‘Un dispositif électronique peut comporter
des composants électriques tels que des capteurs. Un capteur peut comporter des
éléments de circuit de capteur qui rassemblent des données de capteur au moyen
d'une structure conductrice. Le capteur peut être un capteur tactile qui
utilise la structure conductrice pour former une électrode de capteur tactile
capacitif ou peut être un capteur d'empreintes digitales qui utilise la
structure conductrice avec un réseau d'électrodes d'empreintes digitales pour
gérer des signaux de capteur d'empreintes digitales. Des éléments de circuit de
communications de champ proche peuvent être inclus dans un dispositif
électronique. Lorsqu'ils sont mis en oeuvre dans un mode de capteur, les
éléments de circuit de capteur peuvent utiliser la structure conductrice pour
rassembler des données de capteur d'empreintes digitales ou autres. Lorsqu'ils
sont mis en oeuvre dans un mode de communications de champ proche, les éléments
de circuit de communications de champ proche peuvent utiliser la structure
conductrice pour transmettre et recevoir des signaux de communication de champ
proche couplés de manière capacitive ou couplés de manière inductive. Un
capteur d'empreintes digitales peut comporter des structures optiques qui
communiquent avec un équipement externe’.
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