Existing phone fingerprint readers are less than ideal. When they’re on the back, you can’t sign in while the phone sits on your desk; on the front, they chew up valuable device real estate; on the side, they’re tiny. That’s where LG Innotek might just come to the rescue. It developed a fingerprint sensor that hides just under the cover glass on a mobile device, saving space while giving your digits an easy target. On top of that, it can actually be more effective than a dedicated button. It’s extremely accurate (the failure rate is just 0.002 percent), and the stealthy approach protects the reader against scratches and water.
LG hasn’t said how soon you could expect to see its undercover biometric tech in action, and it hasn’t named any customers. However, it’s reasonable to believe that LG itself could be first on deck. The company is a big proponent of both fingerprint readers and extremely space-efficient devices, so you could see this in its next wave of smartphones. The real question is whether or not other big companies will bite — they tend to either have their own fingerprint tech (such as Apple) or are reluctant to support a competitor (Samsung).
Source: LG Innotek