Qualcomm has announced a new advanced fingerprint scanning and authentication technology, at the MWC Shanghai 2017 event. The new Sense ID tech essentially allows future smartphones, to include a fingerprint sensor under the display, or glass or metal. It even works underwater and directional gestures,
Using it underwater is not something the average user would want, but think about it. How many times has your phone refused to unlock, because you just washed your hands, and the finger was not recognized by the sensor thanks to the water on it. So, this new sensor may solve this annoyance.
Qualcomm’s new Sense ID uses an integrated ultrasonic based sensor, which is what will be useful for placing the sensor under smatphone’s display. This ultrasonic sensor can detect heart beat and blood flow as well for more accurate authentication.
The Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensor for Display can scan through OLED devices up to 1200um, while the Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensors for Glass and Metal are capable of scanning through up to 800 µm of cover glass and up to 650 µm of aluminum. In comparison, the previous gen only had support for up to 400 µm for glass or metal.
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 630 and 660 processors, which were recently announced support these new sensors. These sensors can also work with non Snapdragon platforms, i.e., third party chipsets.
The chipset vendor even demoed the new tech, by partnering with Chinese OEM, VIvo. A video featuring a modified version of the Vivo XPlay 6, can be seen on twitter, which shows how the new Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensor works under the display of a phone.
Qualcomm says that it expects phones with Fingerprint Sensors for Glass and Metal to be available in the first half of 2018, while OEMs can begin evaluating the Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensor for Display for their devices from the fourth quarter of 2017.