Influential mobile companies in China are preparing for the rise of mobile iris scanning. Spreadtrum, a fabless semiconductor maker, has announced a new partnership with the Internet Finance Authentication Alliance (IFAA) to promote an iris-based payment authentication framework in the country.
The IFAA carries some major weight. It’s a consortium launched by high-profile firms including Samsung and Ant Financial, both of which offer their own mobile payment platforms. In a statement, Spreadtrum said that the IFAA’s local standard is already being used with more than 90 million mobile phones in China, while its facial recognition standard is being used to serve more than 60 million users. Now, the companies will use their influence to promote a standard for iris-based authentication, with Spreadtrum calling iris recognition “the most stable, most accurate and safest biological recognition technology available to date”.
It isn’t alone in that enthusiasm. While Samsung’s Galaxy Note7 device has been put on ice due to a fire hazard related to a faulty charging mechanism, enthusiasm over its pioneering mainstream iris scanning technology did not go unnoticed by other mobile players. Apple is rumored to be working on an iris scanning feature for next year’s iPhone, and some analysts think it could become the next big biometric modality for mobile devices. And that’s not even mentioning other smartphones already available with iris recognition from Lumia and Fujitsu.With mPayments on the rise too, the promotion of an applicable industry standard could prove beneficial to a wide range of interests.
–
October 13, 2016 – by Alex Perala
Follow Us