We’ve probably never thought about what if your phone’s fingerprint sensor was not limited to the home button (like Apple’s) or an indent or dimple space at the rear (like in the Nexus 6P). We’ve been so used to the fingerprint sensor taking up the necessary real estate that we haven’t wondered what if the sensor didn’t take up any space at all. LG has been way ahead of us in this, as it designed a fingerprint sensor so small and thin that it can literally hide behind the glass screen of your smartphone, no buttons or depressed spaces needed.
LG Innotek’s latest fingerprint sensor module removes the “limitations” of being confined to a depressed space or the home button. In the presentation, it looks like LG carved a space only 0.3 mm thick on the lower backside of a smartphone’s glass screen where they embedded the fingerprint sensor module. Obviously, the user would only need to place the enrolled finger over that area of the screen to prompt unlocking via enrolled fingerprint.
Aesthetically, this is quite a breakthrough for LG. Beyond aesthetics, though, the placement also protects the module from water, dust and moisture damage, as is common with sensors placed on a home button. More than that, if a smartphone unit uses great screen protection like Gorilla Glass technology, the sensor is protected as well.
LG has not yet announced when and in what model this module will be used, but you can bet that some companies will already be looking at this technology. Will we see it on an Android phone first? Or will Apple get to it soon?
Are you kidding? The idea of a fingerprint sensor built into the screen has been around awhile.