Samsung is once again hinting that it will include a retina scanner on an upcoming smartphone. The company tweeted an image about improving security by allowing user's eye to unlock a device.
Apple wasn't the first smartphone maker in recent years to ship a smartphone with a built-in fingerprint scanner. Motorola included an embedded fingerprint scanner on its Atrix 4G smartphone in 2011. The feature worked just like Apple's Touch ID by letting users unlock the handset with their finger instead of using an unlock code. Motorola was unable to convince smartphone users that this was a necessary feature at the time and software bugs made it more of a hassle to use.
What Apple was able to achieve over Motorola was something the company isn't a stranger to and has used over the years on many of its products. Apple's iPhone 5s wasn't the first to include this technology but what Apple was able to do was bring this feature to the masses and presented in an easy to setup/use manner the company is highly regarded for. Touch ID is also very accurate and with the release of iOS 8, Apple is opening the feature up to third-party app developers to incorporate Touch ID into their applications.
Prior to officially unveiling the Samsung Galaxy S5, Samsung executive Lee Young Hee did an interview with Bloomberg back in January.
"Many people are fanatical about iris recognition technology," Lee said at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. "We are studying the possibility but can't really say whether we will have it or not on the S5."
Samsung never brought the feature to the Galaxy S5 and instead used a similar approach to Apple's iPhone 5s by using an embedded fingerprint scanner inside the home button of the Galaxy S5.
The retina scan could be making its way into the upcoming Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy F / S5 Prime, which are expected to be announced in September. Samsung Exynos, the company's chip division tweeted, "Security can be improved using features unique to us. That's what we envision. What would you use?" The image shows a smartphone being unlocked with its user's eye.
While this is no definite confirmation that Samsung will use a retina scanner in the Galaxy Note 4 or Galaxy F / S5 Prime, the company has admitted it's very interested in this type of security feature in the past and now we just might see it actually happen.
