JDI creates transparent fingerprint reader

JDI is primarily known for its display, but the company is diversifying – it just announced its first fingerprint reader. Based on its capacitive touch technology, this fingerprint reader is transparent and could be used in future smartphones.

Traditional fingerprint readers are made out of silicon and are not transparent. Recently, work has been done to put them behind a screen, but this is a new approach.

It uses JDI’s Pixel Eyes tech, which builds the capacitive touch sensor into the LCD panel. The company has improved the sensitivity to the point where it can detect the ridges of your fingerprints. All this is built into the glass substrate, which is highly transparent.

So there’s no need to put it behind the screen to achieve the same functionality as the Synaptics sensor used in the vivo X20.

The sensor unveiled today measures 8 x 8mm (160 x 160px, 508dpi) and should start shipping commercially by March next year. JDI will make both larger and smaller sensors too and wants to make flexible sensors in the future.

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Samsung patent says future selfie cameras may sit behind the screen

18 JANUARY 2018

Fingerprint readers were pushed to the back by shrinking bezels but may return to the front, except they’ll live below the screen. You can’t put a selfie camera on the back, however, which resulted in notches on some phones – like the iPhone X and the Essential Phone. But can cameras join the fingerprint reader and live below the screen too?

    
Patent drawings of putting the selfie camera, earpiece and sensors behind the screen

A Samsung patent shows such a device. It goes a step further and moves everything under the surface – including the earpiece, the proximity and ambient light sensors. The Xiaomi Mi Mix (an early mover in the bezel-less game) already had an earpiece below the screen but it didn’t sound great.

The Mix also put the selfie camera on the bottom, not our favorite position. This patent shows a traditional placement along the top of the phone, but if the camera can see through the screen, it can (in theory) be placed anywhere. That would solve an awkward thing about video calls – you either look in the person’s eyes or at the camera, neither a great choice.

Anyway, the problem is that no one has built such a camera yet. An early patent (referenced by Samsung, Apple, LG and others) suggests using a transparent OLED. With a high refresh rate, the device could flick the screen on and off and allow the camera to have a look during the inactive periods