Android P, the next version of Android waiting to get launched, may help the smartphone manufacturers to easily incorporate iris scanning service in their devices. Google had already introduced the face recognition technology in its Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich version, and Samsung introduced the iris scanning technology in its Galaxy Note 7. For the time being, Samsung’s recently launched Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ have both face recognition and iris scanning technology incorporated within. But with the Android P, Google is expected to provide inbuilt support for iris scanners.
As aforementioned, Galaxy 7 was the first smartphone to incorporate iris scanner, and this made its way to integrate the technology into Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. Howbeit it is expected that more Android devices may arrive with iris scanners in the future. As per the report by Android Police, many commits were have been submitted to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) which includes the iris identification as a biometric security service. In addition to Google, other OEMs will also be implementing the iris scanning feature because the commits are from software engineers working for Fingerprint Cards. Fingerprint Cards is a company which makes fingerprint for Google Pixel, Honor 8, Huawei Mate 9 Pro and others.
The inclusion of a HAL interface was also found among the commits, which is important as it can standardize the working if Android framework with the iris scanners. This will help many vendors to use the feature with Android after seeing it getting properly supported in the ecosystem. In the meantime, other commits were also submitted including the addition of iris feature, iris framework, iris policies, and support for iris identification in the keyboard.
The official announcement about this new Android P feature is expected to be done by Google in the Google I/O 2018. We can expect the next generation Google Pixel smartphones to include the iris technology. Smartphone companies may finally remove the chinks found in face recognition technology with this iris scanners as neither 3D models, not identical twins can fool this technology.
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