A new poll is asking Lumia smartphone users whether they still use their devices’ iris scanners.

Conducted by WMPoweruser, a site dedicated to Window mobile and Microsoft news, the poll is framed with a mild criticism of the iris scanning system as run on the Lumia 950 XL, asserting it takes about twice as long for authentication as entering a PIN. Nevertheless, at the time of writing most respondents report frequent use of the system, with 37.8 percent answering, “Yes, often, but I also use the PIN,” and 24.5 percent responding, “Yes, all the time.”

The mostly positive results, especially considering the priming before the question, should be encouraging to both Microsoft and other companies looking to iris- and eye-based authentication solutions for mobile devices. The Lumia smartphones were launched with considerable emphasis on their iris biometrics capabilities, which are tied to a greater push to biometric security via Windows Hello. And while Microsoft is a major player in helping to promote mobile iris authentication, excitement about the technology has been building since NTT DoCoMo’s Arrows NX F-04G smartphone debuted in Japan last spring featuring iris scanning technology from Delta ID.

Given users’ enthusiasm for the technology, it seems it’s likely only to rise in popularity as it advances, with faster and more accurate systems to come.

Source: WMPoweruser