The fingerprint sensor

A very long time ago, we have phones that use keypads. The classic "Hold * to unlock" in Nokia phones, anyone? Then, we go a little more advanced, with various feature phones hanging around but all with the keypads too. It didn't take long before we go into the world of "Swipe to unlock" paired with touchscreen pin locks and pattern locks. Time flies, we are now in an era filled with various phone unlocking methods - the traditional swipe to unlock, pin locks, pattern locks, nearby device unlock (just think of the latest car keys that unlock your car when you go near it with them), shake to unlock, face recognition, fingerprints, voice unlock, and probably many more.

Believe it or not, even the lowest tier smartphone on the market nowadays can support at least 5 of them, probably more if you are using an Android phone. Just for your information, you can get shake to unlock with third party apps, and nearby device unlocking with the Smart Lock feature. Voice unlocking is tricky to set up if your phone is not designed for it, it takes up a considerable amount of battery and does not work as expected most of the times. Plus, you probably won't use it even if your phone is supported :P

Alright, let's get back to topic before I forgot what I was writing.

---

Fingertips.

Source

If not mistaken, the first phone that uses fingerprint scanning technology is the iPhone. Doing a search returned me this, and according to this page, the iPhone 5s is indeed the first phone to support fingerprint scanning as an unlock method if we ignore the other two not-launched phones. That kinda ended the days of "easy-to-break home buttons" for the iPhones, since now you can't press on them, it just takes a touch. I still remember the first time I experience it on my friend's phone, the haptic feedback (aka vibration) is a little hilarious. You don't expect the phone to vibrate every time you press (read: touch) the home button, right? It did, with his phone settings. I almost dropped his phone when it vibrated on my hands for the first time because it's just shocking. Don't worry, nothing happened. And it's some ancient tale, iPhone 5s...wew.

This application of the fingerprint scanner is quite a huge breakthrough in the smartphone world at that time and it brought up the craze. To be honest, I thought that the feature is actually redundant on a phone - why would you want something that advanced on a phone? But a craze is a craze, you can't beat it. Heck, we even have iris scanners on certain phones. The Touch ID (fingerprint recognition system for Apple devices) did bring a little more good to their devices, users will no longer need to type in their Apple ID passwords when doing purchases as it works with it. But yea that is the biggest advantage I find of that technology.

Nothing too fancy.

A try.

The saying goes, you won't love something before getting your hands on it.

Source

So recently I changed a phone, and this one has a fingerprint scanner. I didn't realize that it has one when choosing it, I put more attention on the specs and stuff like that, additional features normally don't fall into my radar unless I am craving for it, and I can't think of one now. But after learning that it has one, I think I should just abuse it a little and see why everyone is crazy over it.

It's an Android phone, so you can expect the fingerprint sensor to be placed at the back of the device. To be exact, it is a Huawei phone. Setting up the fingerprint is a little tricky, or I should say, not as straightforward as I expect.

First of all, you will need to have a pin lock, or a password. Pattern locks won't work here. That's for security purposes, and you will need it to unlock the phone first right after boot. Then, you can start to tell your device about your fingerprint.

The process is not as straightforward as I actually expected. I thought that it is a simple "press and go" thing, but nope. Apparently the sensor is not big enough for you to press your entire finger in, so it records your fingerprint little by little. You have to put your finger on the sensor part by part according to the instructions, and it is a little frustrating when you don't know that you got the direction wrong.

It actually took me about 5 minutes to set it up for one of my fingers. But the rest are a breeze after the first, because I didn't get their directions wrong :P

Using it in action.

To be honest, I like it.

It's true that you won't know how one thing is lovely before dumping into it. Taking the phone out and touching the sensor to unlock the phone is neat. You don't even need to press the power button - it automatically turns on the screen after a successful unlock. Although it is Android, that means I won't be using it for things like Apple ID or stuff like that, but the manufacturer is good enough to use the sensor for other parts of the phone, like the camera. I don't catch the reason for using the sensor in places like Gallery to scroll pictures...that does not make sense to me. But probably some engineers at their side loved it so whatever. Probably you liked it too.

The only complain that I will make about this sensor is where it is located - it is a little troublesome to unlock the phone in this way if the sensor is facing downwards. Sure, I can use face recognition to unlock it too, but that kinda renders the fingerprint sensor useless. Plus, I don't like how face recognition works. I know a few people that has similar faces with mine, so probably their faces could unlock the phone too. It's just a little too insecure for a security system.

I guess I can finally know why people are craving for this fingerprint sensor on phones. It is really something.

---

Innovations are sometimes a little strange and crazes happen, but the good things always persists :) The only exception? Nokia stuff. I haven't tried their Android phones, but they look pretty promising, probably will get one a few years later :P

Alright, probably will stop here, see you next time :)