Qualcomm and Vivo are going to bring new technology in this smartphone era. They are working to build fingerprint sensor under display. So, here you’ll get detailed information about this technology.
Apple and Samsung, watch out! Someone else may end up eating (at least a good part of) your lunch! While both top rivals of smartphone industry are struggling with various issues in hiding fingerprint sensor underneath the display, someone else has actually pulled it off. That’s right – Chinese smartphone maker Vivo has, in collaboration with Qualcomm, figured out the way to make an optical fingerprint sensor work. And while it’s slower than traditional fingerprint sensors, it suggests that Vivo is clearly ahead of other smartphone makers to introduce this new technology in the market.
The Qualcomm-Vivo duo showed off their new discovery at Mobile World Congress Shanghai. The sensor developed by Qualcomm for the purpose is an ultrasonic sensor that can be hidden under the display, and the working prototype was shown at a Vivo Xplay 6 smartphone. The sensor, when used in a smartphone, allows the bottom-third of the device to act as fingerprint sensor whenever needed.You just press your thumb on that part of
You just press your thumb on that part of You just press your thumb on that part of You just press your thumb on that part of the display and in a second it unlocks your device. While this is slower than most other traditional fingerprint sensors that unlock the devices within 0.2 – 0.4 seconds, we should not forget that the technology is still in its infancy. A little more R&D and it can become another major breakthrough innovation in mobile tech.
What’s more interesting about this technology is that it can also be built into the whole display so you can put your thumb on any part of the display to record the fingerprint. However, that will substantially increase the development cost. For that reason, Vivo is planning to eventually build the sensor in the lower half of display, which can provide the ideal balance of cost and utility. You can see the demo below:
Qualcomm has developed two different versions of technology. One is called “Fingerprint Sensor for Display” while another is named “Fingerprint Sensor for Glass and Metal.” The parameters laid out for both technologies are as follows:
- Fingerprint sensor for Display can detect through OLED displays up to 1200µm;
- Fingerprint sensor for Glass and Metal can detect through glass up to 800µm and aluminum up to 650µm.
Both technologies are dirt, sweat and waterproof. Folks at Engadget tried the sensor hidden behind aluminum under water, and it flawlessly unlocked the smartphone, as you can see in GIF given below.
While this seems a promising technology, it still needs some work to be done (especially in the area of speed) before it can be finally integrated into any upcoming smartphone. Hopefully, Qualcomm and Vivo will be able to do the required hard work to make it better.