Samsung has been working on making in-screen fingerprint scanners available on its smartphones since several years, but it hasn’t yet released a smartphone with the said feature. A few Chinese smartphone brands such as Oppo, Huawei and Vivo have already launched devices with in-screen fingerprint scanners. Even though Samsung could not become the first smartphone maker to offer in-display fingerprint scanner technology, it could become the first smartwatch maker to offer the feature.
Samsung’s patent, filed last year and approved recently, reveals a wearable equipped with the new fingerprint scanning technology. The upcoming Galaxy S10 smartphone is also expected to feature ultrasonic in-screen fingerprint scanner. The patent does not really reveal whether Samsung will be using the more common optical sensor or an ultrasonic under-display fingerprint sensor for its smartwatch.
Smartwatches are meant to make life easier by allowing users to check notifications, messages and so on its without taking out the smartphone from the pocket. Authorizing transactions is one area where smartwatches are a bit inferior since it requires users to enter the PIN numbers on a very small display. It could be quite convenient if the smartwatch featured an in-screen fingerprint scanner. Samsung’s patent that was recently approved shows that it may launch a smartwatch with in-display fingerprint reader in the near future.
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The South Korean company had filed a patent for in-screen fingerprint scanner on various kinds of devices including a smartwatch in the home country and earlier this year. The patent also reveals that the company could be planning to add some other advanced features such as in-display speaker and an iris scanner.
The idea of using of features such as an in-display fingerprint scanner, in-screen speaker and iris scanner on a smartwatch may sound very innovative, but it may take a lot of time to make it available in the real world. It’s possible that these features may not even be seen in products launched in 2019, as such.
