Tag: Synaptics

Vivo Will Launch The First Smartphone With An In-Display Fingerprint Sensor

Turns out, Vivo is one of the top five OEMs Synaptics was talking about. A couple of days ago, Synaptics announced that it had started the mass manufacturing of its in-display fingerprint sensor with “one of the top five OEMs.” While many speculated that the timing is ideal for the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+, it has been confirmed that Vivo will be the first smartphone maker to launch a phone with an in-display fingerprint sensor.

Here are some pics @anshelsag and I took of the Vivo smartphone with the Synaptics in-display fingerprint reader. The CMOS image sensor is .7mm thick and reads the fingerprint right through the OLED display. The experience was faster than I expected. pic.twitter.com/u1NFpXtFQM

— Patrick Moorhead (@PatrickMoorhead) December 14, 2017

Analyst Patrick Moorhead detailed his experience with a pre-production Vivo phone equipped with the in-display fingerprint sensor technology. Moorhead describes the sensor as “fast and simple,” and Synaptics has claimed that it is twice as fast as 3D facial recognition like Apple’s Face ID. That might be a hard comparison to make since both the technologies use different mechanisms.

Vivo has come off as a surprise and it will be a considerable blow for Qualcomm which has also been working on a similar technology for a long time. In fact, Qualcomm and Vivo showed off a Qualcomm-powered fingerprint-sensing display prototype earlier this year, but it was said to be noticeably slow since it was not a finished product.

December 15, 2017
Samsung Galaxy S9 Will Be The First Phone Ever To Have An In-Display Fingerprint Sensor

The Samsung Galaxy S9, the next iteration in Samsung’s flagship ‘S’ lineup is expected to be launched in late February at MWC or at a special event in March. While there have been multiple rumours and renders suggesting that the Galaxy S9 will have a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, this new announcement puts everything else to rest. Fingerprint sensor manufacturer Synaptics just announced that it has begun mass production with a top-five original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to produce its new Clear ID FS9500 in-display fingerprint sensor.

While the announcement did not specify the specific OEM, it could be Samsung since it is preparing to launch the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ early next year. Considering that the company mentioned top 5 OEMs, it could be Samsung, Apple and Chinese smartphone makers like Huawei, Xiaomi and OPPO. There are high chances that it isn’t Apple since it is working hard on making Face ID the next big thing and is preparing to make it better on the iPhone X and other upcoming iPhones. Introducing Touch ID under the display will make Face ID almost redundant.

Rear-mounted fingerprint sensor on the Galaxy S8

Samsung and Synaptics have a history of working together dating back to 2005 with the Samsung B310. Synaptics is a known Samsung manufacturing partner, and when it announced the FS9100 optical fingerprint sensor, there were rumours that it could come to the Galaxy S8 however, that did not happen.

Another giveaway is the mention of “infinity display” in the announcement statements. In the Synaptics press release, it mentions that the Clear ID fingerprint scanner was designed for phones with “infinity displays,” mentioning that term three times. Samsung uses the term “infinity display” to describe its bezel-less edge-to-edge display on the Galaxy S8, S8+ and Galaxy Note8.

Rear-mounted fingerprint sensor on the Galaxy Note8

After so many rumours, it appears that Samsung will finally be able to embed the fingerprint sensor in the display and beat the existing industry leaders to it.

December 13, 2017
Samsung and Xiaomi to Incorporate 3D Touch-like Technology in Future Devices
3D Touch is the new cool thing in town and everyone wants to have a piece of it. It is indeed true that the touch-sensitive feature has opened up new possibilties in the way your phones works for you. It is also a feature many gaming companies are excited to ‘tap into’. We had earlier reported that Samsung was in talks with Synaptics to bring the 3D Touch feature seen in Apple’s iPhone 6s series into its 2016 flagship Galaxy S7. Samsung plans on calling it ClearForce.

Now, fresh rumours suggest that Samsung is not the only brand looking to incorporate the pressure sensitive feature into its phones. Reports emerging from China tell us that Xiaomi too is interested in having this technology for its future flagship devices. This could be one of the reasons the expected Mi5 announcement has been delayed.

G for Games cited Weibo that said that Xiaomi is working on a 3D Touch-like feature for its upcoming devices. Whether Xiaomi is going solo on this project or is seeking help from Synaptics (as it did with the Mi 4c, which uses Synaptics’ ClearPad S3708 capacitive touch controller) is not yet known. Meanwhile, Synaptic claims that its ClearForce technology will be superior to 3D Touch feature.

ClearForce – What We Know So Far

For those unaware, 3D Touch enables the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus to understand three distinct levels of pressure. This, then, enables new gestures such as Peek and Pop that lets you quickly see inside an app without actually having to open it. Users need to press the screen lightly to get a ‘Peek’ at a photo, email, web page or other content, and if pressed a little deeper, they can ‘Pop’ into the content itself.

ClearForce, on the other hand, is planning to take the feature up a notch. From what we know so far, the ClearForce technology, besides the expected 3D Touch functions, will have the ability to understand the difference between speed scrolling, zoom, gaming, texting and even operate photo editing tools by noting subtle variable pressure on the surface. Some of the new features, according to Synaptics, are as follows:
- Variable speed scrolling
- Picture zoom and panning
- Function preview and selection
- Continuously variable gaming control functions
- Unlock and wake up
- Right-side mouse click behavior (open contextual menus)
- Line thickness control while drawing (e.g., when writing Chinese characters and creating artwork)
- Image editing (brightness, contrast, saturation)
- Upper case and symbol selection (to bypass keyboard mode changes)
The rumoured tie-up between Xiaomi and Synaptics is not yet confirmed and we will have to wait and see for more information on that. Synaptics has also mentioned that it plans to work with other OEMs as well. So we could see brands other than Samsung and Xiaomi making use of ClearForce in the months to come.
October 26, 2015
Samsung’s ClearForce Set To Take On Apple’s 3D Touch

The tussle between Samsung and Apple over similar features in their respective devices has persisted for a while now. Both companies have a long history of legal feuds – an example of which can be the 2013 jury verdict which had required Samsung to pay $900 to Apple for infringements of patents. However Samsung still continues to sell the products which used the technology in question and had led to legal trouble in the first place.

Earlier this year in April, the two tech-giants were part of another courtroom drama where Apple was suing Samsung for what it claimed was the copying of the former’s patented features by the latter. Samsung, on the other hand, was counter-suing Apple for having copied its features for iPads and iPhones.

Samsung has incorporated iPhone-inspired features in the past. An example of this is the manual adjustment of exposure at the point of focus in an iPhone camera. Even though this feature is available on pretty much all Android devices, none made it as convenient as Apple. When Samsung came out with its Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge this year, their cameras had the same exposure control feature as the iPhone.

Samsung’s phone unlocking system, which was a shoddier version of iPhone’s slide-to-unlock-feature, is another example of the tech giant coming out with similar tech as its counterpart.

Apple too has picked up features from the Korean company in the past -attempting to make a slimmer variant of iPhones, and opting for an Ion-strengthened glass are two examples.

Staying true to their history of mutual inspiration, Samsung and Apple might be headed towards another common element -ClearForce, very similar to 3D Force, the highlight of the newest iPhones -iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.

Apple’s launched it’s iPhones last month to a huge hoopla in the tech world. One of the most talked about characteristics of the new iPhones is 3D Touch which employs a touch-sensitive technology, enabling the device to differentiate between three distinct types of touch.

Synaptics announced this week that it has also been working on a similar technology called ClearForce. The company plans to work with leading OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturer) to test the technology, and Samsung is expected to employ it in its future phones, post its history of having worked with Synaptics. Synaptics and Samsung earlier worked together on the touch based finger print sensor that are part of Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge.

Apple isn’t the pioneer of using finger-print technology -OEMs have been working on it longer than Apple, so has Synaptics as is evidenced from the progress it has made so far. Samsung wouldn’t shy away from employing this feature in its new devices once its ready. Only time will tell if it would it be another contentious feature in the list of over-laps between Samsung and Apple.

October 10, 2015