When Apple introduced their Vision Pro headset, they delivered jaw dropping features like eye-tracking and simple in-air gesture controls. This is crazy high tech that ushers in the Spatial Computing era. So it's baffling at times when Apple still hasn't found a solution for Touch ID on either an iPhone or Apple Watch.

Patently Apple has covered a couple of Apple patents on Touch ID for Apple Watch (01, and 02) with a few of the patent figures presented in our cover graphic.

We also covered a Samsung patent on fingerprint ID for the Galaxy Watch back in 2018, with one of the key patent figures presented below.

A new Samsung patent on fingerprint ID for their watch surfaced just last week in Europe. A Screenshot of the patent entry is presented below. Oddly, this patent filing is unaccessable at present for details. You could read their brief summary of the patent if you click on the image to enlarge it.  

(Click on image to Enlarge)

Out of hundreds of Samsung patents listed in WIPO's database in the last week, it's a little odd that only this single patent application can't be opened to review further details. Of course it could be a legitimate technical glitch or it's a feature that may be coming to the Galaxy Watch 6 in the coming weeks at their summer Unpacked event and Samsung requested this patent not be available to the public.   

With Apple successfully brought Touch ID to the the Home button on iPad, it would seem that Apple's patent presenting Touch ID for Apple Watch on a side button would be the way Apple is likely to go. In a compact form factor like an Apple Watch, it's perhaps the most practical means of delivering Touch ID.

Will Either Samsung or Apple finally deliver this authentication process to their respective smartwatches this year? Samsung always tries to get ahead of Apple on anything it can, so we'll be watching their summer event closely at the end of July to see if they finally deliver this feature.

On the flipside, with Apple's fixation on all-things related to Privacy, it's time to bring an authentication process to Apple Watch and Touch ID seems to be the easiest way  to accomplish this so as to secure a user's health and other sensitive information. Face or Iris ID are likely far too complicated for Apple Watch at this stage in time.

While this should be the year that this feature comes to market, Apple rarely delivers anything in a predictable way. So all we could do is cross our fingers and hope that a certain Bloomberg reporter get's the green light from Apple to leak this to the press sometime this year.

If you're an Apple Watch user, would Touch ID be a key feature that you'd like to see Apple deliver prior to your next upgrade? Send in your feedback below or on our Twitter feed.