Synaptics, the company responsible for handling the touch input on millions of laptop trackpads and smartphone screens, has announced this week that it’s entered ma$s production with its first optical in-display fingerprint sensors. Titled Clear ID, these are expected to work exactly like the home button fingerprint sensors you might have known on Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S phones before this year’s Galaxy S8 and on Apple’s iPhones before the latest iPhone X. Only they’ll be more magical because you’ll be able to authenticate by pressing on the actual display part of the touchscreen.
It was exactly a year ago today that Synaptics first announced its FS9100 optical fingerprint sensor “family.” At the time, it was merely a technological breakthrough — more a statement of intent than a forthcoming real-world product — and subsequent events have shown that there were issues with the implementation of that tech, which reportedly forced Samsung into a last-minute change with its flagship Galaxy smartphone. Samsung wanted to have a bezel-free front on its phones without losing the front-facing biometric ID function, however the integration of the optical fingerprint reader didn’t go to plan and Samsung had to put in an awkwardly-placed fingerprint sensor on the rear of its 2017 flagships.
↪
https://www.theverge.com/ .. nt-sensor-oled