Qualcomm Shows Off New Fingerprint Sensor That Works Through Glass, Metal, & Even Underwater

Well, we can all stop wondering if a fingerprint sensor under glass is possible as the rumor for the latest iPhone would suggest.

At MWC Shanghai this year, Qualcomm showed off their latest fingerprint sensor technology. The tech uses ultrasonic frequencies to scan through materials and register fingerprints (crazy, right?). Because of this it’ll work through glass, metal, underwater, and can even register heartbeats and swiping gestures. Here’s what Qualcomm had to say in their press release about that technology;

Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensor for Display is the mobile industry’s first commercially announced multi-functional ultrasonic solution capable of scanning through OLED display stacks of up to 1200um, along with enrolling and matching, and Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensors for Glass and Metal are the first commercially announced to scan through up to 800 µm of cover glass and up to 650 µm of aluminum, an improvement over the previous generation’s 400 µm capability for glass or metal.

The tech will work with or without a Snapdragon chipset in the device so it’s pretty open to most manufacturers and will allow them to be more creative with designing their devices (which I’m always for).

The new tech is being shown off on some Qualcomm demo devices as well as the Vivo XPlay6 and should arrive commercially on most devices in the beginning of 2018.

Check out videos from Qualcomm on demoing the sensors below and let me know what you guys think in the comments? Also, think this might be similar to what could be coming in the iPhone 8?