Apple Patents: Mobile Fingerprint Scanner

[NduPlessis]

Apple patent reveals fingerprint scanner merged into device bezel.

Apple Patents: Mobile Fingerprint Scanner : Read more

 

[w8gaming]

If the concept of integrating a fingerprint scanner onto a home button can be patented, it looks like US patent office still cannot differentiate patent troll from real invention.

 

[sixdegree]

Fingerprint? Jobs must be turning in his grave right now. If he's still with us today, Apple would've patent the whole hand.

 

[x2ruff4u]

Fingerprint my ass!!!

 

[digiex]

Why the hell are they still patenting a device that is already been used by Motorola.

 

[olaf]

Id like to see how that will work out for people who work with there hands, and can't wear a glove, and they will constantly cut/scrape etc there hands
I know how much of a pain fingerprint readers are as a security mesure in certain places that we have installed them .... some times the readers can't make to consecutive reads to actualy register a user .... and im talking about dedicated fingerprint reader security solutions not some small crap in a phone...

 

[izmanq]

they can patent something that everybody can think of ? :| this is not creativity, it's pure greed and evil

 

[gsxrme]

I don't see innovation. Apple stock should drop 5% for this

 

[sgthl]

Apple... the biggest patent-troll in history.
To be honest though a large part of the blame lies on the joke that is the US Patent office. Just introduce laws about innovation and the need for something to actually be "new" and see all this bulls*it go away.

 

[davewolfgang]

I had one of these....on my MOBILE iPaQ (yeah, remember those PDA's???) back in the 1990!!!!!!!!! WTF Patent office.??????

 

[back_by_demand]

I wouldn't trust Apple not to pipe the fingerprints to some dodgy NSA database

 

[Cons29]

stupid, but you know apple fans have their eyes wide open and will buy the new phone in a heart beat.
put it in the home button, good idea, make the button (which breaks) more expensive to replace.
i can imagine the amount of dirt and oil around this area

 

[jldevoy]

They cant patent the use of the scanner, only how apple are using it.

 

[totoroty]

What the hell, the Japanese have been doing it for ages! How could you patent something like that!

 

[fyend]

Hiring requirements for US Patent office: IQ below 90, Willingness to accept bribes.

 

[sulanis]

I'm pretty sure my Motorola Atrix 4G has been using this for 2 years now.

Apple is starting to piss me off with these ridiculous patents. I saw someone say that the NSA will use apple to grab fingerprinter data from the phones. That wouldn't surprise me in the least. Someone also said that apple is not being creative or innovative; this Person is also 100% they are being incredibly greedy and evil.

 

[jdlobb]

I think this is clearly a ploy by Apple to try and prove their legitimacy as an enterprise solution more than anything. Conspiracy theories about them feeding data to NSA or trolling for patents somebody else might use are a little over the top, even if they do have a track record of such.

Right now they know they can't compete with RIMM in the Enterprise space, even if they are gaining ground. The biggest issue for the Enterprise is security, I work in IT and my company issued me a Blackberry Curve with more encryption and security nonsense than I had to deal with even when I was in the military. My personal iPhone on the other hand is pretty much an open book, with a laughable level of security that any 12 year old who's watched Hackers and Wargames could annihilate.

I think the best thing that could happen to the industry though for everybody would be for Apple to give up on the Enterprise and for RIMM to give up on the consumer market. They've specialized and differentiated themselves well enough thus far, and they only end up expending valuable R&D and marketing cash trying to compete in markets where they face zero chance of success.

 

[hitman40]

Okay I think most of you guys simple read the title and came here to post. If you read the article, you would understand it's not actually the technology itself they are patenting, it is how it will work and be embedded. FFS read people, dam anti-apple fanboys

"Other companies have already looked into and produced phones with fingerprint scanners, such as reports of Samsung developing it for their upcoming Galaxy phones, or the Motorola Atrix, which already has one built in. But this Apple patent appears to be more about the integration and design of the system, as opposed to the technology itself (which Apple didn't invent in the first place)"

 

[hitman40]

Okay I think most of you guys simple read the title and came here to post. If you read the article, you would understand it's not actually the technology itself they are patenting, it is how it will work and be embedded. FFS read people, dam anti-apple fanboys

"Other companies have already looked into and produced phones with fingerprint scanners, such as reports of Samsung developing it for their upcoming Galaxy phones, or the Motorola Atrix, which already has one built in. But this Apple patent appears to be more about the integration and design of the system, as opposed to the technology itself (which Apple didn't invent in the first place)"

 

[kenyee]

Isn't "structurally merging the sensor die into the bezel of the device" and obvious thing to do? It's like saying "let's put a door lock on the surface of the door so it doesn't stick out"