14 DAY TRIAL // When the iPhone 5s came out, it was hailed for a lot of reasons but one of them was the fingerprint sensor, which allowed only owners of the device to gain access to the smartphone’s content.
Anyway, that was the time when people started fretting out about fingerprint scanners. We know what you’re thinking, the technology has been around in business laptops for some time now (Fujitsu comes to mind), but with the iPhone 5s, the system finally became available for the mass consumers.
Consumer laptops with fingerprint sensors are coming
But things evolve quickly in tech, so not long from now your average laptop will be taking advantage of the same technology. Well, sort of. Synaptics, a company in charge of producing notebook trackpads among other things, has just announced a new touchpad called the SecurePad.
The technology comes built-in in the upper-left corner of the laptop’s touchpad and unlike the scanner technology available in today’s laptops, which require users to firmly swipe their fingers over the sensor, it uses a different route.
The SecurePad has a module akin to the one found in the iPad mini 3 and Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphones, which uses capacitive touch. The outcome? You should be getting a more reliable authentication experience than with older generation models.
According to the producing company, the SecurePad is now available to OEMs looking to build more secure, reliable laptop products. For the time being, we can’t say for sure which device manufacturers are going to pick the technology up, but time will tell.
However, one thing should be pointed out. We should expect to see SecurePad be implemented in consumer-friendly PCs, even if they are high-end.
Expect Ultrabooks to be the first bearers of this technology
So in the first instance, premium systems such as Ultrabooks will probably be receiving the SecurePad treatment, but more mainstream models such as Chromebooks might have a shot of getting it too, at some point in the future.
Synaptics is a member of FIDO (Fast Identity Online) Alliance which gathers titans of the industry like Google, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Samsung, Lenovo or Dell under its umbrella.
FIDO just released version 1.0 of its fingerprint-authentication standard which should hopefully propel the technology into the spotlight.
Using fingerprints instead of passwords might be limited to a few devices today, but that stands to change in the near future.
Since the Consumer Electronics Show 2015 is coming up in Las Vegas, we wouldn’t be surprised if a laptop featuring the Synaptics SecurePad shows up on the grounds at the event.
