Qualcomm launches Snapdragon 855 and 3D Sonic Sensor for in-display biometrics

Qualcomm discussed its new ultrasonic in-display fingerprint technology onstage, and also announced its new Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform at its Snapdragon Technology Summit in Hawaii.

Ultrasonic sensors from Qualcomm are expected to be commercially available in devices early next year, Engadget reports, and could offer some advantages over optical in-display fingerprint sensors. Optical in-display sensors began appearing in smartphones about a year ago, but can fail to identify a match if the user’s finger is not clean or dry. Engadget reports that in addition to avoiding this problem, the Qualcomm 3D Sonic Sensor is much more difficult to successfully spoof.

The Snapdragon 855 is the first commercial mobile platform to support 5G, advanced AI, and immersive extended reality (XR), according to Qualcomm. It also is the first to support the Qualcomm 3D Sonic Sensor, which the company says “can accurately detect fingerprints through numerous contaminants.” The on-chip system also features enhanced audio and imaging capabilities, and includes the Qualcomm Biometric Authentication Suite. The suite consists of Qualcomm Iris Authentication technology, fingerprint, voice, and face recognition capabilities, and Qualcomm’s Secure Processing Unit to enable mobile payments.

Qualcomm recently launched a $100 million AI investment fund by participating in facial recognition provider AnyVision’s Series A funding round.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  fingerprint sensor  |  mobile  |  Qualcomm  |  ultrasonic fingerprints