Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on March 2, 2015

Smartphones are about to get smarter, chip makers say, exploiting technologies that recognize people, objects and sounds to boost security and take helpful actions on behalf of users.

Qualcomm Inc., Intel Corp. and other component suppliers are using the Mobile World Congress, a trade shot that takes place in Barcelona this week, to describe innovations they expect to emerge as mobile devices incorporate advances in sensor chips, cameras and software. A key focus is protecting handsets against hacking by using biometric technologies in place of passwords.

Qualcomm, for example, is describing a higher-security way to read fingerprints to unlock smartphones and authorize online transactions. The San Diego-based company is also unveiling a set of technologies called Zeroth, designed to exploit smartphone cameras and microphones to recognize surrounding imagery and conditions for a variety of purposes. A phone might compare user movements with stored information about their past behavior, the company said, to detect theft of the device and automatically send an alert.

Intel in Barcelona plans to provide new information about RealSense, a technology that exploits advances such as three-dimensional cameras that can map the dimensions of objects and the distances between them. The chip maker cites applications such as controlling devices via gestures or facial expressions, inserting imagery of users into animated scenes and scanning objects to make 3D copies of them.

Intel also says it will demonstrate a mobile app called True Key that uses facial recognition along with other safeguards to authenticate users.

Other Silicon Valley companies planning to discuss new biometric sensor technology at Mobile World Congress include Synaptics Inc. and Cypress Semiconductor Inc.

The offerings underscore the race to add selling points to smartphones, which lately has reflected concerns about handset theft and online security breaches. Apple Inc., whose iPhone kicked off the vogue for smartphones, more recently helped spur alternatives to passwords by including fingerprint readers in its devices.

We are on the cusp of another revolution, said Andrew Hsu, Synaptics director of concept prototyping. And once more Apple is spearheading that revolution.

The authentication technologies come with tradeoffs, Mr. Hsu and other experts say. Most existing fingerprint sensors, for example, use a version of the capacitive technology used in touch screens. They create images of the ridges and valleys in fingerprints based on variations in their ability to store electrical charges. Asaf Ashkenazi, Qualcomms director of product management for security, says capacitative sensors can be hampered by the presence of water, sweat or hand lotion. And some people have fooled them by molding copies of fingerprints using substances like glue, he said.

Qualcomm is proposing instead the use of an ultrasonic sensor to create what Mr. Ashkenazi said is a more detailedand harder to spoofimage of a fingerprint. It uses sound waves that arent affected by foreign substances coating a finger, he said. Its a forgiving technology, Mr. Ashkenazi said.

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Chip Makers Push New Senses for SmartphonesMobile World

Category: Ashkenazi
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