Apple patents fingerprint sensor that works through displays

[NinerL]

Apple on Tuesday was awarded a patent that, if recent rumors are to be believed, might make its way into next year's iPhone model. Specifically, the company now owns IP covering a fingerprint sensor capable of gathering accurate readings through structures like a device screen.

 

 

According to reports, the 2017 iPhone will do away with the iconic home button to make way for a "full-screen face" comprised of an edge-to-edge OLED display. Instead of the physical Touch ID module seen in contemporary iPhone and iPad devices, Apple is said to be working on a virtual button which presumably carries over the same features and functions.
Software commands can be easily replicated with graphical buttons (or through a press on modern 3D Touch screens), but how Apple planned to integrate now-standard Touch ID fingerprint technology into a handset lacking a home button was unclear. Today's patent overcomes design hurdles by introducing capacitive sensing technology that works through gaps in space, thereby allowing a future Touch ID module to sit behind iPhone's display. 
With common fingerprint sensors, separation between the contact surface where a user places their finger and the capacitive sensing array results in a blurring of the finger's electric field. This can lead to degraded fingerprint image resolutions and decreased recognition accuracy. 

To alleviate blurring caused by gaps, Apple proposes the use of electrostatic lenses, which are simply described as one or more patterned conductive layers. Depending on their position, relative voltage and shape, however, the layer or layers are able to shape or bend the electric field associated with a user's finger. This bending can in some cases offset the natural dispersion a finger's electric field experiences as it passes through a dielectric layer or space. 

 

Source: http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/10/04/apple-patents-fingerprint-sensor-that-works-through-displays-hints-at-iphone-8-tech

[AlTech]

Wait a second............ Didn't Microsoft Patent this?????

[Centurius]

5 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

Wait a second............ Didn't Microsoft Patent this?????

Clearly not as otherwise it wouldn't have been granted.

 

Interesting development, would like to see how they implement it.

[NinerL]

2 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

Wait a second............ Didn't Microsoft Patent this?????

The patent was filed back in 2014, it was just awarded. As for Microsoft, I don't know. 

[AlTech]

Just now, Centurius said:

Clearly not as otherwise it wouldn't have been granted.

Ah. Then the Microsoft patent was similar but not the same.

Just now, Centurius said:

Interesting development, would like to see how they implement it.

I'm not to concerned cos until Apple changes their tune,  I won't buy their products.

[AlTech]

1 minute ago, NinerL said:

The patent was filed back in 2014, it was just awarded. As for Microsoft, I don't know. 

 

2 minutes ago, Centurius said:

Clearly not as otherwise it wouldn't have been granted.

 

Interesting development, would like to see how they implement it.

I found the Microsoft patent and it looks pretty much identical........

 

https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-patents-screen-fingerprint-reader/

[Centurius]

4 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

 

I found the Microsoft patent and it looks pretty much identical........

 

https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-patents-screen-fingerprint-reader/

By that article it looks like they only filed the patent, but it hasn't been awarded. Usually with these things the party that was first gets the award, in this case Apple.

[vanished]

1 minute ago, AluminiumTech said:

 

I found the Microsoft patent and it looks pretty much identical........

 

https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-patents-screen-fingerprint-reader/

This is probably one of those things everyone will want to do, and therefore everyone will come up with their own slightly different way, each of them patented

[C2dan88]

Ha. I see what apple is upto there, 2017 model iphone brings back the 3.5mm audio jack but removes the home button instead faceplam

[NinerL]

3 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

 

I found the Microsoft patent and it looks pretty much identical........

 

https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-patents-screen-fingerprint-reader/

It's a different. "The technology would use a wave guide underneath the glass plus a filter which would allow a sensor on the side of the glass to sense the ridges of a fingerprint placed on the glass some distance away. The light from the wave guide may even be transmitted slightly further away via a fibre-optic cable, allowing more flexibility in the design of the handset"

[AlTech]

1 minute ago, NinerL said:

It's a different. "The technology would use a wave guide underneath the glass plus a filter which would allow a sensor on the side of the glass to sense the ridges of a fingerprint placed on the glass some distance away. The light from the wave guide may even be transmitted slightly further away via a fibre-optic cable, allowing more flexibility in the design of the handset"

Same thing !

[NinerL]

3 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

Same thing !

Apple filed back in 2014, MS filed for the patent back in Dec of 2015. Who copied who?

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, NinerL said:

Apple filed back in 2014, MS filed for the patent back in Dec of 2015. Who copied who?

 

MS copied the design of Apple taskbar in the early 90's. 

[Sniperfox47]

Can we all at least just agree that the whole modern patent system is a giant joke? This doesn't even mean Apple plans to impliment this on a phone, they may have just taken out the patent to troll other companies trying to impliment it...

[GoodBytes]

If the implementation is different to some level, both Microsoft and Apple can have its patent.

 

 

[CommandMan7]

24 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

Wait a second............ Didn't Microsoft Patent this?????

At this point most large tech companies have hundreds of overlapping patents, the only reason they don't pursue litigation is because it would end up invalidating most of them, as well as trigger retaliatory patent litigation. What's going on right now in the world of tech patents is essentially mutually assured destruction (MAD). The patent system is horribly outdated and nowadays if your lawyers are clever enough nearly any product can be infringing. 

 

Example: From April 2002 to July 2002, somebody was actually able to get a patent for "Method of swinging on a swing".

 

Picture:

Spoiler

 

Source:

USPTO - "Method of swinging on a swing"

 

As for this particular fingerprint through a screen patent, it's quite interesting, here's the data:

 

Apple - Filed September 9th, 2014 - Granted October 4th, 2016

Microsoft - Filed February 22, 2015 - Granted August 25th, 2016

 

So although Apple filed first, they got their patent second? This might lead to a dispute, although it appears that Microsoft's patent works by measuring light diffraction while Apple's patent is very very light on details and uses a "electrostatic lens formed within the dielectric structure". It seems like Apple's tech here is more complicated and uses a more reliable method. So maybe it isn't a big deal, these seem to be completely different technologies.

 

Sources:

WIPO - Microsoft's patent

USPTO - Microsoft's patent

USPTO - Apple's patent

 

(This post ate up 30 minutes of my free time. If you thought it contributed to the conversion please rate it as informative)

[BuckGup]

Full screen OLED? Yeah that's something worth buying. If they keep the slight curve on the side that would be one sick looking phone. Glad I didn't get the 7 plus

[ThinkWithPortals]

1 hour ago, NinerL said:

 

Ok, that could actually be kinda sick.

[Kimmers]

I'm usually a die hard for physical home buttons but with Apple switching to Force Touch on the iPhone 7, it looks like it's a set up for a home buttonless iPhone. 

 

I haven't used the new force touch trackpads or home buttons but from what I heard they're pretty intuitive. 

[Bsmith]

18 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

 

I found the Microsoft patent and it looks pretty much identical........

 

https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-patents-screen-fingerprint-reader/

 

18 hours ago, Centurius said:

By that article it looks like they only filed the patent, but it hasn't been awarded. Usually with these things the party that was first gets the award, in this case Apple.

The total paperwork and schematics might describe different ways of achieving the same thing, in which case both get awarded the patent and both can use it.