Samsung files for a patent relating to Fingerprint ID used to start Future Vehicles
Last week the U.S. Patent Office published a patent application from Samsung. The invention relates to security authentication functions related to a vehicle. When a user attempts to operate a vehicle, the vehicle may communicate with a server or the like to authenticate whether the user has the authority to operate the vehicle (e.g., is either the owner, member of the owner's household, or authorized by the owner).
Also, in order to authenticate whether or not the user has authority, the vehicle may perform biometric authentication with respect to the user. More specifically, a Fingerprint ID device built into the steering wheel. This is likely to be a future trend and one that we could see Apple adopting in some way for Project Titan.
Making it more secure, Samsung envisions adding a secondary step whereby the driver must also have their smartphone present with them for the fingerprint authentication to be approved.
Samsung's patent FIG. 2 below illustrates a case in which a hardware device (for example, a sensor (#215) for biometric recognition is mounted within a vehicle (#200). Specifically, the sensor for recognizing a fingerprint may be coupled to a steering wheel (#210) of the vehicle. In this case, the user (#150) may have his/her fingerprint recognized by sensor by touching a finger to the sensor. The sensor can corresponds to the sensor #120 of FIG. 1.
Samsung's patent FIG. 1 above illustrates a vehicle including a sensor (#120) for biometric authentication coupled to a handle #170 of a door handle. A user may grab the handle #170 so that a finger of the user may contact the sensor. In this case, the sensor 120 may detect a fingerprint (#175) of the user. Also, the vehicle may determine whether or not the detected fingerprint matches with a fingerprint of a registered user. When the detected fingerprint matches with the fingerprint of the registered user, the vehicle may open the door.
Samsung's patent was filed for in Korea in September 2019 and in the U.S. in September 2020. It was published last Thursday by USPTO.
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