In the near future, you won’t even have to touch your iPhone to unlock it.
Smartphone manufacturers are racing to add new iris-scanning technology to devices, and Apple is also reportedly planning to join the battle by bringing the feature to iPhones in 2018.
The addition of eye scanning could completely replace Touch ID and the home button on future iPhones, but according to a new rumor, Apple won’t be the first smartphone-maker to bring the feature to the masses.
“Samsung is expected to lead all vendors by releasing its new flagship smartphone supporting iris-recognition technology in the second half of 2016,” reports DigiTimes. “Apple is likely to roll out new iPhone devices with iris sensors in 2018.”
Chinese-based companies like Xiaomi and LeEco are also supposedly working on their own iris-scanning solutions as well. Unlocking a smartphone with an iris scan could bring some big benefits like faster unlock times and increased security, but making a sensor that also works well in low light could be a tough task for manufacturers.
Other rumored features for Apple’s 2018 iPhone haven’t surfaced yet, but the addition could be a big upgrade from the 2017 iPhone, which is rumored to feature a redesigned body, curved OLED display, improved camera and more.
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
14 responses to “Iris scanner will put the ‘eye’ in iPhone in 2018”
Neither can be first as the lumina 950 came out last year with an iris scanner.
Iris scanner is already patented by Samsung (2013). Samsung has been working on an iris scanner since at least 2013 (Galaxy S5). Samsung had also interestingly filed for “Galaxy Iris” and ‘Galaxy Eyeprint’ trademarked in U.S. and Korea. A rumor swirled in 2013 that they were aiming to introduce iris scanning with their Galaxy S5 but it never came to be.
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My comment was in relation to the part of the article that says
“Samsung is expected to lead all vendors by releasing its new flagship smartphone supporting iris-recognition technology in the second half of 2016,”
Irrespective of what patents you have or previously planned to do, you can’t lead all vendors by releasing a phone in 2016 when someone already released the same thing in 2015.
A biometric I probably won’t use. I’m not necessarily looking at my phone or have it directly facing me when I unock it (it may be in a car dock or on a desk.) Also I’m often wearing sunglasses. Sure passcode works as the backup but TouchID works every time.
How behind are you poor Apple people? Microsoft Windows 10 mobile phones have already been doing this for months. Do try and keep up!?!
Sorry to put a damper on it, but the iris scanners worked miserably in that Windows 10 mobile phones. It doesn’t work with glasses, contacts lens, puffy eye, narrow eye, poor light condition, bright light condition, actually ANY-LIGHT-CONDITION that you may encounter while walking outdoor.
So no, I don’t think Apple should keep up with these negative feedbacks. This technology may be more mature in the future, but it won’t happen anytime soon.
Totally wrong. I have a Windows 10 Phone and the iris scanning is working in extreme light, dark and with glasses.
Agreed, My 950 iris scanner works in all light conditions, glasses, contacts, even with my lighter pair of polarized sunglasses. Even with droopy eyes it still works. But it would still be handy to have a finger print scanner for when I don’t have the phone right in front of me. The iris scanner also needs to be a little faster.
Well lucky for you cause my friend’s Win10 phone seldom works. May be because we’re Asian and our eye color are pure black.
They are luckier than me, it works terribly on my Lumia 950xl. Its unusable outdoors. I wouldn’t mind if Microsoft had provided fingerprint scanner as well. At this stage even when it does work, performance is still inferior to fingerprint scanner. Hopefully if Samsung implement it, they have a better reliable version that works in all environments. And they provide a fingerprint scanner for those that want both options.
OMG, the iphone 8 is supposed to have an all glass curved amoled screen with wirless charg and water resistance, a full blown copy of the galaxy s7, now i see this eye scanner that the samsung note 7 will have. Seriously
Do we really need a faster unlock than the current Touch ID? And what about sunlight, low light, and when wearing sun glasses?
Yeah but the idea of iris scanner is to provide more options. If you live in cold environment in winter where you wear gloves, then an iris scanner is a better alternative to a fingerprint scanner. That’s just one example. I found it works better in low light and in the dark. Where it sucks is outdoors when you have bright light.