Samsung’s under-display camera for biometrics shown in new patent filing

A patent application from Samsung shows an under-display camera (UDC) with biometric capabilities aimed at making facial recognition on phones more accurate and safer.

Spotted by Galaxy Club, the patent is called ‘Method, Apparatus and Storage Medium for Authenticating User’ and was published by the Korean Intellectual Property Right Information Service (KIPRIS) on Thursday.

From a technical standpoint, the invention describes how Samsung wants to build multiple UDCs to allow users’ faces to be scanned from different angles.

The same patent also describes a feature that allows smartphones to check pupils’ responses via the UDCs, likely for iris biometric authentication applications.

UDCs are not necessary to perform iris recognition, but multiple cameras working in concert could result in more accurate biometric readings, both for iris and face images.

At the same time, UDCs have a lower pixel density than the rest of the screen, which is why they are usually integrated at the top of the screen, far from the portion where most user interaction is recorded. Conversely, having multiple UDCs may disrupt users’ viewing experience.

The technology described in this may or may not find applications in future Samsung phones, but it is unsurprising to see the company working on under-display biometrics, as Apple has already published several patents related to the technology, including one last month.

Article Topics

biometric authentication  |  biometrics  |  cameras  |  facial recognition  |  patents  |  research and development  |  Samsung  |  smartphones  |  under display