How a fingerprint scanner works on a smartphone

Today, a smartphone performs not only its main purpose, it is a place to store personal, financial, and sometimes corporate information. On the protection of information with a reliable shield is scanning fingerprint.This is the most accurate way to identify a person’s personality, which is somewhat inferior to the earlier ones - retinal scanning, DNA analysis. The protrusions and indentations on the skin - papillary patterns - form a pattern that is unique to each person. Damage to the skin is not terrible - over time, the pattern will get the same look. How does one of the most reliable defenders of our information on the phone, we will tell in this article.

Operating principle

The method of obtaining a copy of the papillary pattern depends on the type of scanner that is embedded in the mobile device. However, any device, regardless of its type, provides the following operations - obtaining a finger pattern, checking its coincidence with a picture from an already existing database. Three types are most common:

1. Optic. This reader is most often used in smartphones. The principle of operation is similar to the work of digital "soap trays". The basis is a matrix, which consists of a photosensitive diode and an autonomous power source. A beam of light on a photosensitive photodiode, causes the formation of an electric charge proportional to the intensity of the stream. The result is a "picture" with areas of different illumination, which is a display of the print. If the brightness or clarity of the obtained pattern is insufficient, then re-check is performed.
2. Capacitive. Work like a touch screen. When you touch a finger, a change in capacity occurs, which is then converted into tension. The bulges give a certain potential difference, practically no depression. Based on this, an exact pattern is formed.
3. Ultrasonic. As bats and dolphins are oriented in space with the help of echolocation, so this sensor works using sound waves. The source constantly sends pulses in the direction of the screen. The reflection of the wave from the bulge and the depression occurs in different ways - the reflection time is different. Based on this, a 3D picture is compiled that repeats papillary finger patterns. While such sensors are not used in mobile devices, since they are quite expensive. But work is underway.

If a fingerprint scan is done by different methods, then the further processing information is the same. It is processed with the help of software, it is analyzed, the comparison / comparison of fingerprints in the database with the resulting pattern. If a complete match is obtained, then identification is carried out - entry into the device is allowed.

Advantages and disadvantages of this access method

The undeniable advantage of fingerprint scan access is security:

• Simplicity. Access is carried out by the careless movement of one finger.
• The complexity of forgery or duplication compared with the cards.
• Impossibility of a fake, casual guessing, calculation or breaking, in difference from a pin code, the password.
• Inability to forget, to make a mistake when entering, as often happens when entering a password.

But, as in any, the more a fairly new method of access, has its drawbacks:

• 100% reliability in question. People who have set out to gain access can use a finger phalanx, a fake.
• The inability to change their fingerprints when unauthorized access, as is easy to do when changing the password, pin-code.
• For the time being, the very encryption itself, which depends on the quality of the software, its “holes,” is in doubt.
• User authorization problems can cause wounds, cuts on fingers, dirt, and scratches on the screen. Any, even minor defects, can make access difficult.
• Have you ever wondered how many people used a public scanner before you? It is necessary to approach him with disinfectant wipes.

If you have trouble reading

If you can not log into your device, then do not scold the manufacturers. Maybe it's in the following:

• You have moisture on your hands, a touch of fat.
• The software itself crashes. Reboot required.
• You have injured, scratched your finger, an insect bite or other defect on it.

Manufacturers have provided such moments, so any device can be activated by using the password, pin-code. As it was said, this technology of protection of consumer-level devices is quite new. Therefore, standards, protocols as they evolve will be improved, errors will be eliminated. The accuracy of settings will be improved, the quality of encryption will be improved, data protection will be worked out, which will prevent data theft.