CHANGING SECURITY STYLE BY USE OF FINGERPRINT SENSORE IN MOBILE.
fingerprint sensors have changed smartphone security, even if not by much. The ability for the user to unlock their device or get authorization and make payments is something relatively new to the scene.but now days there are many mobiles comes with finger print scaner even it is a flagship mobile ,midrange or lower range phones.
EVOLUTION OF FINGERPRINT SCANER.
Touching Memories
The first notable device with a fingerprint sensor were Toshiba’s G500 and G900
, which date back to February 2007. They were Windows-powered smartphones which caught many people’s attention (even ours) back in those days before the big transition to Android and iOS. The next big device to implement a Fingerprint Sensor was the HTC P6500
which was released few months after the G500.So while fingerprint sensors have become all the rage in the past two years, and are now being integrated into Marshmallow, they had their testing grounds before then and before Apple. The Pantech Vega LTE and the iPhone 5S were arguably the relevant modern-day devices to have fingerprint sensors implemented and both were released in the year 2013, bringing back the solution but in modernized terms.
Since then, almost all the OEM’s have considered adding a fingerprint sensor to their flagships (eg: Galaxy S5/S6, iPhone 5S/6/6S, Huawei Mate S/Ascend, HTC M9+, Xperia Z5, One Plus Two, LG V10). Not to mention the latest Google flagships, the Nexus 6P and the 5X, as both include a sensor — and Google has also made their solution open to developers to make use of it in their apps in ways that other platforms and previous Android phones don’t allow for.
Since the iPhone 5S and its fingerprint sensor, OEM’s have been working hard to make faster, more reliable readers for their flagships. Surprisingly, over 70 modern day smartphones were released with a fingerprint sensor since the launch of iPhone 5S.
We live in a fast-paced world where each of us tries to minimize inconveniences, and that makes us attracted towards technologies that help us save time (which is a huge part of any technological development anyway). Even though there is a vast variety of features for fingerprint sensors, the top priority seemingly goes to unlocking the device itself. Some flagships are incapable of mobile payments, for example, yet still opted for the technology for the sake of speeding up the lockscreen.
According to research, on average a person unlocks his devices 110 times a day. This is likely a big reason as to why OEMs produces devices which have faster and more reliable sensors, as they ultimate guarantee an extra layer of security (in most cases, at least) without sacrificing speed. Rather than unlocking with multiple tries, the sensor should be able to recognize the print on the first try.
Manufactures experiment by placing the sensor on different places like the Home Button, Power Button, back of the device and they have also tried different methods as well, such as swiping, pressing and tapping. Some reports state that companies are working on taking the power button sensor to the next level by directly implementing the scanner inside your device’s display.
TYPES OF FINGERPTINT SCANER IN SMARTPHONE.
1. Optical Fingerprint Scanners
optical fingerprint scanner
As the name suggests, an optical scanner involves the use of optics (light) to capture and scan fingerprints on a device. Essentially, the scanner works by capturing a digital photograph of the fingerprint and then using algorithms to find unique patterns of lines and ridges, spread across the different lighter and darker areas of the image. This digital photograph is a 2D depiction of the different patterns of ridges and lines present on the finger, and since it comprises of details in the darker sections of the image as well, the same is lit-up using a light source, typically an LED, to capture a detailed image. The quality of the image sensor plays a crucial role in getting a high-definition and detailed image of the fingerprint, which would make it easier to extract more data from the image, increasing security.
Optical Scanners have been prevalent in the early days of fingerprint authentication technology, and are nowadays, rarely used on most smartphones, except for a few budget-friendly ones. The possible reasons for a fall in the adoption of optical scanners seem to be – the bulky circuitry design that makes it difficult for manufacturers to fit it into a smaller form factor design, or the low-level of security offered with the 2D picture of the fingerprint, which can be easily tricked using prosthetics or high-resolution pictures.
2. Capacitive Fingerprint Scanners
capacitive fingerprint scanner
Going by the name, one can get an idea of the involvement of capacitors in Capacitive Scanners. For those unaware, a capacitor is an electronic component that stores electrical energy in an electric field. In case you’re wondering about its role in Capacitive Scanners, it’s important to first understand that unlike optical scanners, which capture a 2D image of the fingerprint, capacitive scanners capture different details of the fingerprint using just the electrical signals. For this, it uses a series of tiny capacitors circuits, arranged in an array, to store data of the captured fingerprints. During the process of enrolment, the change in fingerprint patterns (ridges and lines) causes a change in the registration process, as the charge would be different for a finger placed over the capacitive plate and different for the air gap between the ridges and lines. This change, in the charge of the capacitor, is further determined using an op-amp (Operational Amplifier), and then recorded with the help of an ADC (Analogue-to-Digital Converter).
Once a fingerprint is captured, all its related data is further analyzed for unique fingerprint information and then saved for comparison at the time of user authentication, in the future. Since no 2D image capturing is involved in this process, the fingerprint data is far more secure than the data from an Optical Scanner. And therefore, a Capacitive Scanner cannot be easily tricked with the help of prosthetics or photographs of the fingerprint, which is why these scanners are more popular and widely used across a wide range of smartphones currently in the market.
3. Ultrasonic Fingerprint Scanners
Ultrasonic fingerprint scaner
It is the newest fingerprint scanning technology, that has started to appear in smartphones, recently. Unlike the other two types of fingerprint scanners, which involve the use of light or capacitor, an ultrasonic scanner, on the other hand, utilizes a very high-frequency ultrasonic sound. Additionally, it also requires the use of a combination of an ultrasonic transmitter and an ultrasonic receiver. The process involves the use of an ultrasonic pulse, which is sent through the ultrasonic transmitter towards the finger resting on the scanner. As soon as this pulse strikes the finger, some part of it is transmitted, while some part is reflected back. This reflected pulse is then picked up by an ultrasonic receiver, which depending upon the intensity of the pulse, captures a 3D depiction of the fingerprint. This change in the intensity of pulse is caused due to the texture of the finger, which constitutes ridges and lines.
To be able to pick the change in intensity of the reflected ultrasonic pulse, the ultrasonic receiver takes into consideration the mechanical stress of the fingerprint on the scanner. The longer a finger stays on the scanner, the more details it can capture, and produce a detailed 3D depiction of the fingerprint. However, a drawback of this type of fingerprint scanning method is that it is not as fast as the other methods of fingerprint scanning. On the other hand, the scanner does a great job of allowing manufacturers to get rid of or minimize the bezels around the screen, which is only possible because the scanner can be easily implemented under the display.
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