Apple Files Patent for Display-Embedded Touch ID

Maura · May 18, 2016

Apple files patent application for display embedded Touch ID.webp

Hot on the heels of very recent rumours that Apple will be introducing an iPhone with an edge-to-edge display from 2017 onwards, 9to5 Mac reports today that a patent that Apple filed in March last year reveals how it might do this.

In the patent filing, which has only just been published, Apple describes three different fingerprint sensor technologies that could be used, with one of them, ultrasonic imaging, enabling the fingerprint sensor to be embedded in the display. And according to the patent application, this type of display-embedded sensor would be even more accurate than the capacitive sensor of today’s iPhone Touch ID feature.

The patent also refers to how such a sensor would be able to verify data, such as a driving license.

While it’s true to say that Apple files many, many patent applications, and by no means all of them actually come to fruition, there have been several examples recently of Apple introducing technical innovations that had previously been revealed by patent applications.

Source: Bezel-free iPhone a step closer as third Apple patent published for Touch ID sensor embedded in display

dgstorm · May 18, 2016

This leads us to believe the home button will disappear soon. What do you folks think about that?

scifan57 · May 18, 2016

dgstorm said:
This leads us to believe the home button will disappear soon. What do you folks think about that?

If the home button disappears, what will replace it? A virtual home button won't work when the iPhone is asleep and the screen is off. Also, the current method of making screenshots is to momentarily press both the home and power buttons simultaneously. The current method of putting the iPhone into DFU mode will also not work if the home button disappeared. There's too much functionality there for Apple to get rid of the home button entirely, especially functions that work when the screen is off or asleep.

J. A. · May 18, 2016

For putting your device into recovery mode, it's also necessary to use the Home button.

KevinJS · May 19, 2016

Call me a stick-in-the-mud, but I'd like to keep the home button, regardless of any possibility of getting rid of it.

There are some operations where the movement of a physical button is reassuring.

If anything could disappear, I'd like to see the volume up/down and mute buttons go, to be replaced by a Bang and Olufsen style touch sensitive slider, perhaps occupying the whole of one side of the phone. Accidental changes in volume could be prevented by combining a slide or tap (to mute) with a simultaneous press of the Home button.

(Another reason to keep the home button)

EDIT: Ignore me. I just realized that most civilized people keep their iPhone in a case (unlike me) so my idea wouldn't work. NEXT...