Vivo phone may feature in-screen fingerprint sensor in 2018

Chinese smartphone player Vivo could bring the world's first smartphone to ship with fingerprint sensors embedded into the display, media reported.

"Synaptics made an announcement with Vivo that improves further on the smartphone UI experience. Synaptics announced it has figured out how to manufacture, in high volume, an integrated fingerprint sensor in the smartphone display that operates in a fast, secure, manner," a report in Forbes said late on Thursday.

The new sensors will be operated by one-touch, high-resolution optical scanning through full glass and through the device's display.

Earlier this week, Synaptics -- the company responsible for handling the touch input on millions of laptop trackpads and smartphone screens -- announced that it has started mass production with its first optical in-display fingerprint sensors.

The company announced that it is going into full production with what it described as "top five original equipment manufacturers (OEM)".

Notably, Vivo is one of the top five smartphone vendors globally, according to the IDC Q1 2017 Tracker.

Named "Clear ID", these are expected to work exactly like the home button fingerprint sensors.

Synaptics "Clear ID" FS9500 family of fingerprint sensors are reportedly designed for smartphones with the immensely-popular "infinity" OLED displays which are found in flagship smartphones such as Samsung Galaxy 8, Galaxy Note 8 and Apple iPhone X.

--IANS

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