Smartphone Touchscreens May Soon Feature Fingerprint Scanners

The next smartphone you buy may come equipped with a fingerprint scanner built directly into the touchscreen.

It’s not uncommon for modern-day smartphones to feature a fingerprint scanner. The Galaxy S5, for instance, has one on the back of the device, allowing users to unlock their device by pressing a finger against it. However, these fingerprint scanners have their own dedicated button; they are not built directly into the touchscreen. This may soon change, however, as the fingerprint module maker CrucialTec recently announced plans to launch an integrated fingerprint and touchscreen solution.

In a recent interview, CrucialTec CEO Charles Ahn said the company was producing the world’s first touchscreen integrated fingerprint scanner. Although he didn’t reveal an exact release date for the product, Ahn said it would likely be released by the end of the year. This is welcomed news for the thousands of consumers who intend to purchase new smartphone in 2015, as it could revolutionize the way in which mobile handsets are locked and unlocked.

“CrucialTec will not be just a manufacturer but a company that provides total biometric solutions from software and hardware to module packaging technologies,” said Charles Ahn, Chief Executive of CrucialTec, when speaking with Korean news reporters.

Instead of having to press a dedicated fingerprint scanner on the back to unlock a device, users could simply touch their smartphone’s display. The touchscreen would then read the user’s fingerprint, cross-referencing it with the digital copy on file. Assuming the two match, the device would be unlocked and the user’s given access. It sounds simple enough, but it’s apparently a difficult task because no other company has been able to produce such technology.

According to Ahn, only two other companies are currently pursuing touchscreen-based fingerprint scanning technology, both of which are roughly a year behind CrucialTec in the development department.

The touchscreen-based fingerprint scanning technology is dubbed “Matrix-Switching Touchscreen Panel or MS-TSP.” Unfortunately, we don’t know much about it at this time, as CrucialTec is keeping it under tight wraps. However, it’s safe to assume that it will feature sensors to determine the exact shape and structure of the user’s fingerprint when he or she touches the display.

What do you think of a touchscreen-based fingerprint scanner?