Sonavation, the security technology firm, recently announced a technology allowing ultrasonic fingerprint sensors to be embedded under Corning Gorilla Glass. This can potentially make way for anticipated iPhone designs without a home button, which rumors have been floating around for roughly one month. These sensors are bonded directly to the display with claims that the 3D scanning technology behind the effort can remain accurate in all situations; even if a finger isn’t entirely clean when being used.
A previous rumor pointed speculation towards Apple working on removing the home button from future iterations of the iPhone. The rumor claimed that such a move was unlikely to happen until the year 2017 at the very earliest. The biggest issue with such a design was the need to replace the Touch ID sensor embedded within the button. The technology needed to be replaced with equivalent fingerprint detection embedded into the screen.
Since the rumor, Apple has filed for multiple patents all related to the concept, including one that covers the detection of multiple fingerprint sensors simultaneously. The company is also reportedly working on chips that merge separate touch and display driver functions, but it could want to turn to a company such as Sonavation to help create a complete package given their progress in the space to begin with.
There appear to be several potential issues and obstacles that need to be overcome though, starting with whether the technology will work with sapphire if Apple chooses to switch away from Gorilla Glass. There’s also the question of how to replace iOS commands that currently rely on a home button, though Force Touch and multi-finger gestures could potentially provide a relatively simple solution.
We’ll have to see what comes of the whole ordeal by being patient and waiting for more concrete evidence to be revealed.
Source: Sonavation
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