Patent Implies Apple Has Long Considered Using In-Screen Touch ID Solution

The iPhone X, launched in 2017, delivers a new design style with a full-screen display with the Home button being eliminated. After dropping the Home button, the Touch ID is also removed, and Apple has to rethink a new iPhone biometric recognition system, ultimately, the company came up with Face ID, while promising that the facial recognition system is way secure than Touch ID, it doesn't inevitably mean that Apple gave up fingerprint recognition and completely embrace Face ID.

A recent patent application from Apple proved that the Cupertino firm is still envisioning how to manage to put the Touch ID on a larger display. The patent specifies the use of a number of small holes in the display panel so that light can pass through the underlying optical image sensor. In this approach, when the user's finger touches the screen, the reflected light can enter the optical sensor through the small hole to capture the fingerprint.

Additionally, this scheme also emphasizes that there are a large number of holes to cover a sufficiently wide area and the distance between the pixels on the display panel is equal so that the user can hardly find its existence. A transparent layer can also be used between the display panel and the aperture array mask layer, which provides a space for the light to better pass the reflected light through the sensor, providing the sensor with sufficient data to generate an image of the user's fingerprint.

Apple said that adopting the system also saves users time because it eliminates the need for authentication steps by simply reading the finger information when the finger touches the display.

It's worth to note that on May 23, 2016, more than a year before the release of the iPhone X, Apple submitted this patent document, indicating that the solution is still being regarded at the time. Although the company often submitting patent applications, a significant portion of them will not be applied to future products or services, but they do symbolize areas of interest in their research and development work.

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