How does your phone manage to read your fingerprint?
Modern technologies never cease to amaze the human mind. The magical things we can come up with at a click of a button. But as with progressive technology comes mechanics and systems set in place to protect it. Things we seemingly take for granted as “by the way” features on our latest smartphones. Things like fingerprint scanners have become essential for the modern day smartphones. Every time your finger presses the screen to unlock it, a specialised process takes place for your phone to recognise you, the user. Phones use one of three different technologies to read your fingerprint: optical, capacitive or ultrasonic. An optical fingerprint reader is the oldest of the three. It uses a specialised miniature camera to take a picture of your finger, often backlit with little LED’s or the phone’s screen. Modern technologies never cease to amaze the human mind. The magical things we can come up with at a click of a button. But as with progressive technology comes mechanics and sy...