YORK SHIRE: At certain point probably when the iPhone 5s came out fingerprint sensors became cool. Yes, they’ve been used on business laptops for years, but it’s only recently that we’ve started to see them in stuff consumers would buy — things like smartphones and tablets. Now, it seems, we’re coming full circle.
Synaptics, the leading maker of laptop trackpads, just promulgated something called the SecurePad, a touchpad with a dactylogram sensor built into the upper-left corner.
Unlike subsisting dactylogram scanners for laptops, which require users to swipe their fingers over the sensor, this one uses capacitive touch, akin to the dactylogram modules utilized in contrivances like the iPad mini 3 and Galaxy S5. The result should hopefully be a more reliable experience than you would have gotten on older-gen laptops, but as we’ve visually perceived with more incipient products, even touch-predicated dactylogram scanners can be a commixed bag.
There’s no word yet on which PC makers will be utilizing it, but one thing is for sure: This incipient SecurePad is destined for consumer PCs. Concretely, high-end consumer PCs. For the time being at least, Synaptics verbally expresses we’re liable to visually perceive its incipient touchpad in pricier systems like Ultrabooks, though who’s to verbalize it won’t eventually trickle down into the mainstream? Additionally, as you can visually perceive in the above photo, Synaptics is currently exhibiting off the touchpad with discrete left and right buttons.