Biometric Sensors for the iPhone?
Who else has caught wind of an Apple patent for a biometric sensor on the iPhone? At Eye Tracking Update, we have heard a few rumors regarding new patents and iPhone apps, and a quick look around the web will bring up quite a few articles discussing the new addition.
The tech site Fast Company is reporting that this new patent couldn’t be simpler. According to the article, part of the metal shell of an iPhone (see our previous post about the next gen iPhone found in a Silicon Valley bar last month) would be replaced by electronic sensors that can detect the pulse of a user’s heart through the hand holding the phone. Heart patterns at the cardiac level would create what is essentially a key, which could be used as a signature the iPhone could detect, identifying a particular person (the owner of the phone) and keeping your data safe. Apparently, you would be able to log into your own phone just by picking it up and letting it monitor your heart rate.
That said, it might also be used for biofeedback as Apple has done with Nike in the past, monitoring heart rate and a runner’s distance with the iPod.
We’ve touched on quite a lot of biometric news as of late, describing methodologies and definitions, but really anything dealing with Apple is pretty noteworthy. Fast Company’s article cites the recent enthusiasm among industry professionals like Gabe Newell, cofounder of Valve, a large computer game firm. Last March he told an audience at the Games Developers Conference that pupil dilation and heart rate are both techniques that would give their games impact in the future. Of course, he’s talking about video gaming, monitoring physical arousal of game players as they wander through second lives and third worlds.
It’s a well-known fact that many are excited about the widespread introduction of biometrics, but I imagine it would only take Apple’s push for these and similar technologies to take root in mainstream consumer devices.
We expect to see a lot more about this in the coming year, especially as details of Apple’s new generation of iPhone begin to leak out over the Internet. In the meantime, let us know if you hear anything worth noting.
Apple wants to embed cardiac sensors into an iPhone case to identify you
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