Iris Scanning Comes to the Web
One of the differentiators of Samsung Internet compared to other mobile browsers is tighter integration into Samsung-specific device features.
As reported earlier this week, Samsung has announced its latest device, the Galaxy Note 7, which includes an interesting new feature: iris scanning. Previously the realm of science fiction and spy genre films, iris scanning (using a special infrared camera) can now fit in your palm! Galaxy smart phones have long had the ability to use your fingerprint as a security measure, and this feature has been built into the browser as well, providing an extra level of security when saving passwords or when entering “secret” browsing mode. Now, with the release of Samsung Internet 4.2 on Note 7 devices, users will be able to use iris scanning as an alternative biometric security measure to keep their passwords and maintain their privacy.
Once you set up your iris authentication in the device itself you can take advantage of this wherever a fingerprint could be used before, for example on saving sign-in info — (encrypted) web site usernames and passwords.
Using biometrics such as finger prints and iris scans to secure saved passwords (and use of secret mode) can help provide an extra level of privacy.
Iris scanning is one of those features that’s quite difficult to demo unless you’re actually using the device, but we put together this quick video which shows it working to unlock Secret Browsing mode. You see the user’s eyes for a flash just as it’s being unlocked.
A quick demo of Iris scanning used to unlock Secret Browsing Mode on Samsung Internet on the Galaxy Note 7.
Even more exiting will be the integration of these features into emerging web technologies such as web payment and web authentication. That’s when we’ll start to see how these kinds of advanced biometric technologies can be exposed to the developer in interesting ways. Watch this space.
Tagged in Security, Authentication
By Daniel Appelquist on August 5, 2016.
