Most of today’s smartphones rely on an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner which is built under the display. Samsung, which is one of the pioneers of the technology, is introducing an advanced panel for future devices that is capable of reading fingerprints in any area of the screen as well as measuring health data like blood pressure.
At Samsung’s SID Display Week in Los Angeles, the South Koreans have unveiled the new display called Sensor OLED Display that drastically improves fingerprint recognition and biometrics in smartphones and tablets. It has an embedded light-sensing organic photodiode (OPD) rather than having it built separate compared to current solutions.
The use of OPD will enable fingerprint scanning on the whole screen instead of only utilizing a portion or the bottom area as seen on the Samsung Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23 Ultra. Additionally, these will also improve security by allowing to input multiple IDs or fingerprints during authentication.
How Samsung’s OLED panel with biometric sensing works
However, the most notable feature that the Sensor OLED Display brings is the support for biometric reading. Samsung says the panel will take advantage of the OLED light to monitor some health or biometrics data of a user.
Specifically, light will be beamed onto the blood vessels of the user’s fingers when pressed on the display. Furthermore, the variation of reflected and refracted light back to the panel will determine blood pressure level and heart rate. The method is partially similar to how the 3-in-1 BioActive sensor works on Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 5 Pro we’ve reviewed, which uses a spectrum of lights and lasers.
Currently, it’s unclear if when we could expect the technology to materialize on an actual Samsung Galaxy smartphone or tablet. But considering how it is already demoed at Samsung’s Display Conference, we may see this arriving in a few years.
What are your thoughts on the possibility of a Samsung smartphone having biometric sensing built on the screen? Do you think it is a vital feature you would consider in the future? We’d like to hear your answers in the comments.
