The idea of integrating Touch ID under the display is already known. Over the last few years, patents confirming Apple's research in this direction. However, to date, it has not been implemented.
A patent application granted by Apple to the US Patent and Trademark Office shows that the iPhone manufacturer is still interested in its plans for Touch ID 2.0. The launch of the iPhone X in 2017 brought a fundamental change in the way Apple would design the iPhone in the future. The famous home button had to be eliminated in favor of an edge-to-edge display. As a result, the biometric recognition technology also had to be updated.
Touch ID 2.0 could save a lot of time
Integrating Touch ID under the display would have been the alternative to Face ID – Apple famously opted for facial recognition. Nevertheless, the company is still researching ways to make Touch ID disappear under the display. Some users would like an iPhone with two biometric recognition technologies – is Apple trying to meet these needs? According to the patent description, Apple would place optical image sensors under the display and an image of the fingerprint could be created using reflected light. Using this technology would also save a lot of time, as the system could identify the user when the device is used directly – according to Apple. It remains to be seen whether the technology will ever be implemented in this or another form. It is not uncommon for many such ideas to never make it into finished products. But: Two types of authentication in one device are not unrealistic for Apple, as the following patent shows.
