I’m sure you’re aware that many manufacturers include fingerprint scanners in their smartphones nowadays, and we’ve been hearing about the so-called iris biometric eye scanning technology for a while now. This was expected to be the next step in smartphone authentication methods. Well, Fujitsu has just announced that they’ve developed the iris authentication system unit and built it into a prototype smartphone. Just by looking at the smartphone, the iris scanner unlocks your smartphone, no need to do it manually in any way.
This scanning technology is not used only to unlock a smartphone, of course, it can be used to log into certain websites / services without inputting a password or anything of the sort. The whole idea behind this is to give you an extra layer of security and ease of use. The prototype of this scanner is being showcased on the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2015 in Barcelona at the Fujitsu booth.
How does this thing work? Well, the iris scanner authenticates the pattern of person’s iris (a ring around the pupil of the eye). Fujitsu managed to make this thing as small as possible in order to fit it into a smartphone. The infrared light acquires the iris pattern in order to register and verify it. Iris authentication is able to discern person’s identity by using the pattern of the person’s irises, which are, of course, unique for each person. Fujitsu says that this is an extremely precise method of authentication.
“The iris authentication system used in the prototype could be used in smartphones and tablets, of course, but could also be used in a wide range of other applications, including security solutions. Fujitsu is conducting ongoing research and development on this iris authentication technology and ways to broaden its scope, with the goal of a commercial implementation during fiscal 2015,” said Fujitsu.
That’s it, iris scanner is currently being showcased at MWC in Barcelona, and it seems like we’ll be seeing more of this technology in the future as it gets included in smartphones and tablets. Do you think this is will bring an extra layer of security to smart devices?
