Tuesday, October 8, 2013

The Analysis of Fingerprint Recognition Function of iPhone 5S

Today Apple published iPhone 5S/5C formally,meanwhile fingerprint recognition function of the phone has been confirmed ——it is time to say good bye to MyKeyLock and put your finger on the Home key when unlocking the iPhone. It will be tested whether such a new technology can trigger a revolution in the realm of mobile security, first of all, let's see how it works.

Electro-optic Fingerprint Recognition Technology

There are two major technologies in the realm of fingerprint recognition that we need to know——electro-optics and electric capacity. Electro-optic scanner is almost the same as a traditional scanner, both of which light the concave and convex texture of the sample and then capture into black and white photos by using CCD camera——the concave is black while convex is white. After scanning, the computer program will compare the distribution of cross points called 'detail', between the scanning photo and the existing material. If there are enough 'details' matching, user's identity will be confirmed and the permission will be conferred. But Apple does not use this technology.

Capacitive Fingerprint Identification

A more sensitive capacitance is used in iPhone5.It relies on a set of tiny capacitance element array. Each element width is less than a fingerprint. These elements include two conductor plates separated by insulating layer.

When you put your finger on the capacitance scanner, the finger bulges can cause some conductor plates connected, which comes into being loop and generate electric current, and the elements under the bulges remain separated. After that, the system will analyze the voltage generated by each element to judge which is in the concave and which is in the convex. Combining the data, the scanner will generate a fingerprint photo. It is similar with the one using electro-optic method but more accurate. The another advantage of the capacitance scanner is that it needs a real fingerprint instead of mere a distribution picture of light and shade, which makes it harder to deceive.

Harder to Decipher for Thieves

This technology is easy to use when it is demonstrated in the press conference. As soon as you slide down your finger, your fingerprint data will be put in and the phone is unlock .But the reality is more complicated. It is still not clear that whether this function can run perfectly if the finger is dirty or the weather is cold. Anyway it is a much more difficult job for thieves to decipher the fingerprint recognizer than the phone code.

Data Security

Apple said they would save the users' fingerprint data in their own phones instead of in the servers of Apple, which lowers the risk of data being stolen through Internet. So far,just in terms of fingerprint recognizer its safety is still high.

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