Apple patents new under-screen Touch ID system. With how happy users were all with Face ID on their iPhones, since it was implemented a few years ago in the iPhone X, so that now with the blessed mask everything has gone down the drain.
But it is clear that Apple is not going to leave us stranded, and continues to seek solutions to avoid returning to the old system of PIN unlocking when we wear face protection. This week it has just been granted a patent for a new Touch ID system under the screen. We will see if they will apply it to the iPhone 13.
Without a doubt, wearing a mask is not pleasant. And to all the inconvenience that entails, on top of that we have to unlock our iPhone with the PIN, with how well accustomed we were to Face ID.
Apple is aware of this and does not cease to seek an alternative in this regard. At the moment, they are going to solve it with the next iOS 14.5 for users who also own an Apple Watch, being able to unlock the iPhone if you wear the Apple Watch, as currently happens with Macs.
And for the rest of the users, continue to investigate with Touch ID under the screen. Apple already has a multitude of patients with different systems to achieve it, but this week the U.S. patent house has granted a new one to the Cupertino company with a new procedure based on prisms to read fingerprints on the screen.
The system tested so far, illuminates the surface of the fingerprint resting on a specific area of the screen, and the image of the fingerprint, would “sneak” between the separations of the pixels of the LEDs, forming a digital image of the fingerprint, which the system would be responsible for comparing with the pattern file as valid.
A layer of the screen would act as a prism
The problem is that this image is not complete, and sometimes information is missing to give the “OK” to unlock. The new patent explains that there could be a layer under the screen that acts as a prism, so that it deflects the digitized image 42 degrees towards the sensor that captures it, integrally without loss of image.
So we have one lime and one sand. Apple is behind the Touch ID under the screen, but it seems that the system is still a bit green.
