Microsoft has launched a slate of new devices running on its new Windows 10 operating system. They include a powerful new laptop-tablet hybrid called the Surface, the Microsoft Band 2 fitness-tracking device, and two models of a new smartphone with biometric capabilities.
While there’s a lot of technological sophistication among Microsoft’s new devices – the company even announced a “fully untethered holographic computer” – its Lumia smartphones are a standout. The 5.2″ Lumia 950 and the 5.7″ Lumia 950 XL both offer infrared iris scanning for user authentication. While they aren’t the first smartphones in the world to offer iris scanning, they’re close; Fujitsu won that distinction with the launch of its Arrows NX F-04G smartphone in Japan in June. But Microsoft’s Lumia devices could be the first infrared iris scanning smartphones in the US when they launch this November.
The devices represent a bigger push on Microsoft’s part into advanced digital security and biometrics in particular. Its Windows 10 OS is notable for its embrace of biometric security via Windows Hello, a user authentication system relying primarily on facial recognition, but also capable of fingerprint and iris scanning. The company has encouraged hardware partners to develop products that can take advantage of these capabilities, and in the case of its Lumia smartphones is clearly leading by example.
Source: Ars Technica
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October 7, 2015 – by Alex Perala
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