Death of the home button: Patent suggests Apple's next iPhone may have a fingerprint sensor embedded into the screen
- The entire surface of the screen might turn into a fingerprint reader
- The patent relies on micro LEDs which emit light and also a diode to sense light
- Losing the home button would save space and grant greater design flexibility
Apple's Touch ID sensor on the front display could soon find a new home.
A recent patent suggests that new iPhones will be able to read fingerprints directly through the screen.
If the patent is used, it means that the chunky bottom bezel of the iPhone could be transformed into a sleek extension of the screen.
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A recent patent suggests that new iPhones will be able to read fingerprints directly through the screen. The new finger-scanning technology relies on a micro-LED, which is capable of both emitting and sensing light. Pictured is a patent drawing filed as part of the application
The patent was originally filed by a small company which specialises in micro-LED displays called LuxVue in 2014.
It was then redesigned by Apple when it acquired the company and the new patent, titled 'interactive display with IR diodes', was filed on 14 February.
The patent suggests Apple could integrate the technology capable of reading a user's fingerprint without a dedicated sensor, according toApple Insider.
'A touchscreen capable of acting as an input device and fingerprint scanner would save space and grant greater design flexibility', they said.
This design feature is rumoured to be released with the iPhone 8.
This would mean it had a full-face display and an 'invisible' home button.
The company might be creating a completely clean surface and therefore remove the drive ring altogether.
The patent, which involves using LEDs to sense the user's finger, was originally filed by a small company called LuxVue. This could mean the end of the home button - and a handset that is 'all screen'. Pictured are artist's impression of what an all-screen iPhone might look like
However, for this to work, the fingerprint sensor readings would need to be highly accurate - much more so than the original touchscreen.
The patent explains that micro-LEDs can be used as a replacement for standard touch displays.
Because they are so small, they can be embedded onto a display substrate alongside tri-colour LEDs.
The subpixel arrangement could incorporate red, green blue, IR emitting and IR sensing LEDs in an extremely high resolution panel.
This means the display could include information about the intensity of incoming light.
This would result in a better understanding of the object and its surface - such as ridges in a user's fingerprint.
Certain areas of the display could have a higher density of interactive pixels - this means it could get a more accurate reading of a fingerprint.
However, it's also possible that instead of concentrating these in certain areas the entire surface of the screen might turn into a fingerprint reader.
The company is rumoured to launch the i-Phone 8 model later this year with an edge-to-edge display.
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