or user authentication methods for smartphones
A long time ago, scanning the retina, the iris of the eye, or even a fingerprint was something very distant for us, found in spy films or books. Time passed and the fingerprint scanner began to penetrate the life of large companies in one form or another, until, finally, they began to equip corporate laptops with technology to protect data and ensure that only one user can access the system. A little more time passed and the fingerprint scanner got to portable electronics, in particular smartphones. And along with it, other user authentication technologies began to come here.
Of course, the heyday of fingerprint scanners in smartphones came in 2015 and, probably, in 2016 the fashion for installing this element will not fade away at all, but this year we can expect the appearance of other means of authentication. For example, the first smartphone with an iris scanner has recently appeared, the technology combines special software and a front camera for direct scanning, we are talking about Fujitsu Arrows NX F-04G. In March 2015, at the MWC in Barcelona, the Chinese company ZTE also showed its Grand S3, which, as announced, implemented a more sophisticated technology for scanning the retina (it is located on the back of the eye). However, judging by the reviews and some other materials, in reality a photo of the eye was simply taken there and subsequently the original photo was analyzed and compared with new ones during authentication. One way or another, companies are making their first attempts in this direction and, I believe, in 2016-2017, eye scanning technologies will appear in other devices.
However, there is another interesting way to authenticate a user. I have not yet seen its implementation at the level of individual smartphones, but I have already met it in applications, for example, in the Chinese messenger WeChat. It's about voice authentication. It looks like this: you go into the program and enter your account data, then turn on the voice recognition setting, and the system prompts you to dictate the set of numbers generated on the screen, and then you need to repeat it again. The application remembers the voice and the next time you start the program on another device, when you need to re-enter your username and password, you can choose voice authentication and log into your account in this way.
In my opinion, all these technologies are introduced not so much because every manufacturer is so worried about the safety of user data, but because of the technological stagnation in the smartphone market. Everything that could be invented (or almost everything) and immediately implemented was invented and implemented, but every company needs to “bleed” to release new devices annually and somehow sell them. Any idea, any bold proposal and anything you want is used. For the same reason, by the way, it seems to me that in 2016 we can expect the strangest novelties in the crowded smartphone market.
What do you think of the above mentioned user authentication methods? Do you find them useful?