Qualcomm has announced a new fingerprint scanner destined for smartphones, called Sense ID, which uses ultrasonic sound waves to map the surface of your finger. Previous methods of fingerprint recognition used high-resolution capacitive sensors, but switching to ultrasonic sensors has a number of benefits.
Firstly, these types of sensors are more accurate than their capacitive counterparts, as they're able to recognize the pores and ridges on your finger for increased security. They're also not as susceptible to moisture as previous sensors, and can work through glass, sapphire, plastic and even metal.
Sense ID sensors will be compatible initially with Snapdragon 810 and 425 SoCs, although you'll eventually see them supported across the entire range of Snapdragon 400, 600 and 800 series SoCs.
As well as launching Sense ID, Qualcomm has teased their upcoming flagship SoC, the Snapdragon 820. Qualcomm has designed their own 64-bit capable ARMv8 cores for this SoC, which they're calling 'Kyro', and the chip will be manufactured using a FinFET process at either 16nm or 14nm.
Qualcomm will begin sampling for the chip in the second half of 2015, meaning it will hit devices in either late 2015 or early 2016. Before then we can expect more details, as Qualcomm is being rather light-on with information at this early stage.
