Fingerprint recognition explosion: Who sets the rules of the game?

1. Become famous early

Within a year of iPhone 5s launching touch ID fingerprint payment, Chinese manufacturers in addition to Samsung also responded to the Android camp.

The fingerprint recognition technology of iPhone 5s comes from Authen Tec, which Apple acquired in 2012. At that time, Authen Tec was already the world's largest supplier of fingerprint sensors, chips and modules, identity recognition and encryption security solutions, with annual sales of 70 million US dollars.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 uses a relatively old and backward one-way sliding fingerprint recognition technology, which is supplied by Validity, which has now been acquired by Synaptics.

The fingerprint recognition technology used on the iPhone 5s is a press-type recognition technology. The fingerprint can be recognized by placing the finger on the Home button, instead of swiping the finger from top to bottom across the Home button like Samsung. The scientific name of the patent used by Apple is "Fingerprint biosensor with sensor circuit using a thin film on a single crystal substrate and related methods". It is the core technology of Authen Tec and the asset that Apple valued most when it acquired it.

As we all know, Apple and Samsung are sworn enemies in patents and markets. After the acquisition, Apple immediately stopped Authen Tec from providing fingerprint recognition technology to several other manufacturers. Why didn't Samsung look for the second best fingerprint recognition company? Because the second best fingerprint recognition chip company is called UPEK, which was acquired by Authen Tec in 2010. So, you know.

What’s so great about Authen Tec’s fingerprint recognition?

AuthenTec has developed a semiconductor sensor based on capacitance and radio frequency (RF). This sensor recognizes the electric field strength of the living skin of the finger. The fingerprint it recognizes is the clearest, and it recognizes living fingers. In other words, it cannot be deceived by cutting off someone else's finger or using fingerprint film stickers on the Internet.

What can such powerful fingerprint recognition be used for?

Currently, fingerprint lock allows you to quickly unlock and pay in Apple services such as App Store, Apple Store, iTunes Store, iBooks, etc. After nearly 8 months of testing, at the WWDC in June 2014, Apple opened the Touch ID fingerprint recognition interface, and third-party applications can call fingerprint recognition information, which will bring earth-shaking changes to mobile payment, identity authentication, etc. I believe there will be amazing news at the iPhone 6 launch conference on September 9.

2. Follow the pace of others

Fingerprint recognition, the most feasible form of biometrics, is unique like an ID card and can greatly increase the cost of counterfeiting. This is almost the inevitable path for the future of mobile payments, and it is strategic for mobile phone manufacturers to seize this commanding height.

So in addition to Apple and Samsung, HTC and Sony also followed suit with fingerprint recognition this year; the domestic vivo Xplay 3S is known as the first domestic Android phone with fingerprint recognition; in addition, Konka and Gionee have launched products that support fingerprint recognition. However, it should be pointed out that most of these fingerprint recognitions still use capacitive touch sensors.

On September 4, Huawei Mate 7 will be released. According to my personal experience, the fingerprint recognition of Mate 7 is similar to Apple's press-type rather than Samsung S5's scratch-type; similar to HTC's fingerprint recognition, there is no Home button. Mate 7 has fingerprint recognition on the back of the phone, and its experience is even better than that of iPhone 5s (of course, it was launched a year later): iPhone 5s first lights up the screen and then presses the finger to unlock, while Huawei can directly use the fingerprint to light up the screen and unlock, omitting the step of lighting up the screen, making it much smoother to enter the phone.

Looking at the Android market, the reason why fingerprint recognition is not as popular as Apple is not only because of technical factors, but also because of the security brought by the openness of the Android system. Fingerprint recognition, a biometric technology, is irreversible, that is, it is difficult to have remedial measures once it is cracked. If the password and unlocking gesture are cracked, the password can be changed, but once the fingerprint unlocking method is mastered by someone, it will face huge risks - fingerprints cannot be changed. Once a person's fingerprint is leaked once, it means that he may not be able to use fingerprints as the entrance to all identity authentication in the future. This is why the collection and storage of fingerprints in the world are all carried out by security agencies with national and government backgrounds.

In the Android camp, Qualcomm is the chip provider, Google is the system provider, and there are many different mobile phone manufacturers. The decentralized manufacturers are not as good at controlling security as Apple alone.

3. How do manufacturers protect user fingerprint security?

Let's start with Apple: First, the user's fingerprint is only used locally and will not be uploaded to the iCloud cloud (the danger of the iCloud cloud is that it can be hacked, just look at Jennifer Lawrence's nude photos). Secondly, in the Apple A7 chip under the ARM architecture, there is a specific area called the Trust Zone, which Apple calls the "Secure Enclave". The fingerprint information features are stored on the entire chip hardware and are not allowed to be read by software other than the fingerprint recognition sensor. These fingerprint features are not complete fingerprint information, but a combination of some fragments. Even if the features are obtained, the fingerprint cannot be reversely copied.

If you want to use press-type fingerprint recognition and ensure security, the best way is to have chip design rights and a certain degree of control over the fingerprint touch sensor industry chain. From a domestic perspective, Huawei has a relatively large advantage: Mate7 uses Huawei's self-designed HiSilicon Kirin chip, which has Trust Zone in its design. It is revealed that the fingerprint touch sensor is a well-known foreign supplier. There are rumors that the fingerprint supplier cooperating with Huawei is Fingerprint Cards.

4. Who will build the fingerprint ecosystem?

Huawei Mobile Vice President Li Xiaolong did not disclose the cost of the fingerprint recognition feature on the Mate 7, but admitted that it was definitely expensive, twice as expensive as the average fingerprint recognition feature. Although they did not disclose whether they would open their technology to other mobile phone manufacturers in the future, one thing is certain: Alipay Wallet has teamed up with Huawei to launch the first fingerprint payment cooperation plan in China - after verification and comparison, Huawei users no longer need to enter a digital password when shopping or transferring money in Alipay Wallet, and can easily complete the payment with just a tap of their finger.

Mobile payment is a major application of fingerprint recognition, and participating in the ecological construction of fingerprint recognition is an inevitable layout for Alipay Wallet. Of course, Alipay Wallet will definitely support Apple's fingerprint payment. It is said that Apple has consulted PayPal, Square and Alipay on mobile fingerprint payment, but it is clear that in the iOS ecosystem, Alipay Wallet can only play a supporting role, and all rules must follow Apple's way.

The openness of Android gives all manufacturers the opportunity to meddle in fingerprint recognition standards. The current "FIDO Alliance" is solving this problem. The slogan of the FIDO Alliance (Fast IDentity Online) is "kill passwords". The goal is to create online authentication based on open protocol standards to reduce users' reliance on traditional passwords. Google, Microsoft, PayPal, Intel, ARM, and Samsung are all members of the FIDO Alliance (yes, of course Apple is not included, because Apple wants to do it on its own).

"Only by unifying standards can the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain be connected." This is the consensus of many technology companies.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.