The next generation of MacBook laptops and iPad tablets could be opened with a scan of a fingerprint (or nipple-print, or toe-print , or sausage-print), as Apple’s TouchID patent looks ready to cover a wider range of the Cupertino firm’s products.
Patently Apple has uncovered the filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which contains lines that would see the technology go beyond it’s current home in the iPhone 5S. While the inclusion of the fingerprint scanner in next week’s iPad tablets would come as no surprise (they’re just a big iPhone anyway, amirite?), it’s slightly more unexpected news to hear that it could be coming to the laptop line-up too.
The patent also throws up an interesting tidbit of information — Apple’s TouchID scanner is advanced enough to scan a fingerprint at comparatively high resolutions against rival systems, all the while doing so without electrically shocking the finger. We should hope so too. [Patently Apple via TechRadar]