Future Galaxy phones and tablets may flash iris detectors

eye iris sensor
Samsung's upcoming phones could pay close attention to users' eyes

Depending what Apple jams into the iPhone 6, Samsung could soon get the leg up on its rival when it comes to biometrics.

Samsung Senior Vice President Rhee In-jong said at a forum in Hong Kong that the company hopes to eventually include biometric security measures in even its low-end phones.

"We're looking at various types of biometric [mechanisms] and one of things that everybody is looking at is iris detection," he said, according to The Wall Street Journal's Digits blog.

Apple started this train moving with the iPhone 5S's fingerprint scanner, and Rhee said Samsung is simply "following the market trend."

Eyeballs and fingerprints and more

What do his hints mean for upcoming Samsung flagships like the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Samsung Galaxy S6?

Well, Rhee also suggested that new sensor mechanisms will likely arrive in high-end phones before they trickle down the production line.

Rhee heads Samsung's mobile enterprise service Knox, which the company hopes will ingratiate its devices with business users thanks to its security features.

He said of the 87 million devices sold that came with Knox, about 1.8 million actively use the service.

No doubt some flashy new biometrics will further increase perception of Samsung's phones as secure, even if that security may be easily bypassed.

Michael Rougeau

Michael Rougeau is a former freelance news writer for TechRadar. Studying at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Northeastern University, Michael has bylines at Kotaku, 1UP, G4, Complex Magazine, Digital Trends, GamesRadar, GameSpot, IFC, Animal New York, @Gamer, Inside the Magic, Comic Book Resources, Zap2It, TabTimes, GameZone, Cheat Code Central, Gameshark, Gameranx, The Industry, Debonair Mag, Kombo, and others.


Micheal also spent time as the Games Editor for Playboy.com, and was the managing editor at GameSpot before becoming an Animal Care Manager for Wags and Walks.