Smartphone Fingerprint Detection And Recognition

With all the reports of smartphones being stolen and hackers accessing servers, there needs to be another way to improve the protection of your smartphone. We have seen how apps are able to track your phone as part of efforts to locate your lost smartphone or tablet. But the current methods of unlocking the screen via a 4 digit number need to be improved significantly beyond what is available today. Coming technology needs to involve the use of biometric features to recognize you as the owner of the smartphone. Something as simple as a fingerprint could add another level of security to your mobile device.

Today, there are USB devices which can be added to a tablet or computer providing fingerprint recognition, but these do not provide what is really needed for your smartphone. You may have even had a laptop with the fingerprint reader as part of the device. The added feature a fingerprint reader on your computer was great add on, but we really need something for our smartphones which use biometric recognition. This may be the year we see multiple smartphones with their larger screens incorporate a fingerprint scanner. So, where are we know.

The Motorola Atrix smartphone is sold as having biometric features, but is one of the few which provide the features. And the Atrix has the biometric scanner on the back side of the smart phone, as shown above and not the front. In order for the scan to be done on the display side of the phone is going to require changes to the displays for resolution and adaption of the scanner. Smaller smart phones cannot support this due to a lack of space.

In recent news, Sony has filed a patent here in the US for fingerprint scanning. This is generally the first step for coming features on a smart phone and to protect their intellectual property from other companies. This will be a combination hardware and software solution. Today, there are apps which you can download which provide a software only solution, but we truly need a hardware solution. And it does appear that things are beginning to look like we are going to see something in 2013 for biometric scanning of fingerprints for authentication and access to a smartphone.

Apple's purchase of AuthenTec last summer clearly shows an interest in getting into the world of fingerprint detection in the future. Current rumors about the next iPhone coming with fingerprint detection are circulating. These are rumors, but tend to indicate that smart phones with fingerprint recognition is something we are going to see this year. And since Samsung is a big player in the smartphone world, we can expect to see something from them later this year as well.

With companies like Validity who was present at CES this year, there will be solutions for manufacturers to take advantage of. For smartphones, they have a fingerprint sensor which can be added to smartphones. And this is only one of the product offerings they have. Their current products could give us exactly what we need in a fingerprint reader for smartphones this year. It does seem that software and hardware will be coming together in 2013 to gives us biometric features to lock our smartphones. The only way into your smartphone will be through fingerprint recognition.

As this technology comes to market, it is definitely something you should look at for securing your smartphone.