With all the new fangled technology packed into them, iPhone releases are getting more expensive as time goes by. Since these are quite valuable, they are also more prone to theft than ever before. Existing security measures are enough to keep your social networking passwords safe, but what about when you finally use your iPhone to pay ala credit card? Or when you end up using it to open your car door?
Since iPhone technology is gearing towards making it your all in one gadget, Apple is also considering adding additional security measures that tie up the mobile phone to you. In short, by using biometric security measures, identity thefts may be prevented.
The most common biometric sensors around are fingerprint scanners but there are existing technologies for other, more complicated ones such as voice recognition and iris scanning. Since these are often bulky and impractical to include in such a small device, Apple has come up with a new idea that may be integrated into an iPhone.
The newest Apple patent revealed to the public makes use of a sensor which seamlessly detects a user’s identity simply by checking the “cardiac signal” of the one holding it. Since every person’s heart pattern is different, this then eliminates variable which may be guessed or cheated.
With the use of this technology, iPhones will not be enabled when in the hands of an unauthorized or unrecognized individual. According to the US Patent and Trademark Office, this technology is formally referred to as the “Seamlessly Embedded Heart Rate Monitor”.
While it is still only in the patent stage, this innovation may ease the minds of those intending to rely heavily on their iPhone in the future. Apple has so many patents up its sleeve, which makes this realistic only if the hardware it needs can be manufactured at a steady rate and if the software is truly reliable.
Tags: Apple, Apple-iPhone, Apple-iPhone-4, Apple-iPhone-4G, security