An in-screen fingerprint scanner is the hottest technological advancement that all smartphone OEM’s were striving for in 2017/18. Big tech giants like Samsung and Apple were in a race to get this technology out to the general consumers. But to their impasse, none of the two technological icons were able to do so. Instead, Vivo, a Chinese smartphone manufacturer, was able to beat them to the punch by showcasing a working in-screen fingerprint scanner at CES 2018.
Vivo in partnership with Synaptics was able to produce the world first in-screen fingerprint scanner. With the bezel-less display trend, it was difficult for smartphone companies to put a physical scanner at the front of a device. Instead, they had to put it at the back or skip it altogether. But with this new technology, OEM’s can put the scanner at the front of a device, right where it should be.
The technology, as of right now, works only on OLED panels as they don’t possess a backlight, unlike their IPS counterpart. The sensor itself sits between the OLED panel and the glass protection of the phone. From the test demos, we can see the sensor works but not as fast as a physical scanner of something the OnePlus 5T.
Don’t get me wrong!
The sensor works fast but not as fast as the present competition of on-device scanners. That said, the technology itself is mind-blowing! Imagine touching the surface of your phone’s display and unlocking it.
I mean how cool it that?
And speaking of cool, the location where the fingerprint is scanned has this cool techno animation of a thumbprint. It stays illuminated to show you just where the sensor is. And don’t worry about battery life! Synaptics claims that this will not take up any extra battery from the phone. The sensors itself scans your finger by running your print through an AI processor that’s trained to recognize 300 different characteristics. It creates an image of how far/close the ridges on your fingers are in a pattern.
Also Read: Price of Vivo smartphones in Nepal
Vivo, at the event, didn’t specify the name nor the time span when this technology will be available for the general consumers to use. This definitely is a new revolution in the mobile industry! Just like the bezel-less designs, dual-camera setups, different OEM’s will soon jump on to this bandwagon. Since the technology is new, we will first see them in high-end flagship devices and then slowly in the mid and budget segments.
