Samsung Brings Biometrics Even to Most Radical Experiments

“Both devices offer touch-based interfaces and, perhaps more striking, they both use biometric authentication to control who is allowed to unfold or unroll them.”

Samsung appears to be increasingly intent on incorporating biometric authentication into even its most experimental technologies, if new patents reported by Patently Mobile offer any indication.

The patents concern foldable and scroll-like digital displays. One describes a tablet-like device that can be folded in half like a wallet, while another details a digital screen that can literally be rolled into a scroll, like a piece of paper.

Both devices offer touch-based interfaces and, perhaps more striking, they both use biometric authentication to control who is allowed to unfold or unroll them. The patents for both devices illustrate how subtly placed fingerprint and iris scanners could be used for access control, with the foldable device concept also potentially supporting modalities like voice and even gait recognition.

Of course, these technologies appear to be on the outer limits of what’s technologically feasible right now. As Patently Mobile reports, Samsung has been working on versions of this sort of thing since at least 2008, so it isn’t clear that such devices will hit the market anytime soon. But what is clear is that, having committed to iris scanning even after its Galaxy Note7 fiasco, Samsung is intent on bringing sophisticated biometric authentication to its newest and flashiest devices.

Source: Patently Mobile