Palmprint recognition: the future trend of mobile phone unlocking?

On the afternoon of December 7, realme officially launched the third mobile phone in this year’s GT series - Realme GT5 Pro at a new product launch conference. This new flagship phone, which is officially known as the “king of quality-price ratio”, is very balanced in terms of core configuration. In the price range of 3,000-4,000 yuan, it takes the “volume” to the extreme.

#Xiao Lei previously published a related article on the actual experience of Realme GT5 Pro "Starting from 3298 yuan!" "Realme, this flagship phone, will go head-to-head with Redmi", interested friends can check it out by themselves.

But today Xiaolei wants to talk to you in depth about the new feature of Realme GT5 Pro: fast palmprint unlocking.

What exactly is palmprint unlocking?

According to the official introduction, the palmprint unlocking function is similar to face unlocking. When the phone is screen-free, the user only needs to open the palm and approach the screen of the phone without direct contact to trigger it. Turn on the screen to unlock quickly.

Photo source: this site

This pair is used to faces and For those who use fingerprint unlocking, it may be a relatively novel unlocking method. After Xiaolei got the new phone, he immediately tested the palmprint unlocking function. The process of registering palm prints is very simple. You only need to take a photo of your palm to complete the process.

Then I brought my palm close to the front lens, which is equivalent to telling the phone that I want to activate the palm print recognition function, and then raised my palm until the front lens can fully frame the view. distance, it was successfully unlocked. The whole unlocking process was relatively smooth. The only thing that made Xiao Lei feel a little uncomfortable was the action of raising his hand. In Xiao Lei's opinion, this action was a bit "middle-class" and had a kind of super hero's style when using his powers. If palmprint unlocking is used in public, it is definitely a good way to achieve quick social death for "iren" users.

Source: Weibo

Currently the most commonly used smartphones Biometric unlocking methods are fingerprint unlocking and face unlocking. The advantage of palmprint unlocking over fingerprint unlocking is that it does not require contact with the phone, but the unlocking efficiency is far inferior to fingerprint unlocking. Palmprint unlocking and face unlocking are also remote operations, but palmprint unlocking There is one more step at the operational level; anyway, after experiencing the entire unlocking process, Xiaolei has not discovered the unique advantages of palmprint unlocking for the time being. Perhaps it can be used in certain specific scenarios to play its real role.

#In addition to the unlocking method, Xiaolei’s biggest doubt about this technology is its security. Different from palmprint recognition machines in subways, convenience stores and other places that have large lens modules, infrared or 3D recognition hardware, and we only take a photo when entering palmprint information, the small mobile phone in our hand is really Can an identification module be inserted to ensure accuracy?

##Photo source: This site

Holding Man With the question mark on his head, Xiaolei believes that experiment is the best answer. In order to test the accuracy of palmprint recognition, Xiaolei prepared a printed palm map, a high-definition palm photo, and a high-definition palm dynamic video to see if the realme GT5 Pro's palmprint unlocking can withstand it.

After a series of intensive tests, Xiaolei found that the above three methods can only activate the bright screen, but cannot unlock the phone. It seems that the recognition security of Realme GT5 Pro’s palmprint unlocking is still very high. At least based on the level of this test, it can basically protect against naughty children at home.

An unlocking method that seems new but not new

In fact, LG has been on mobile phones as early as 2019 A similar palmprint unlocking function has been implemented. LG released the LG G8 ThinQ model at the MWC conference that year. The machine realized the unlocking function of palm identification through the front TOF sensor, and was officially called "Hand ID" by LG. It’s hard not to think of this name as Apple’s “Touch ID” and “Face ID”.

Photo source: LG

"It can pass through the veins in the palm of the hand Shape and texture characteristics to identify different individuals." This was LG's official introduction to this function at the time, but perhaps due to the technical level of the year, this function failed to perform as expected in actual experience. Regarding unlocking efficiency, many users have reported that this function has high requirements on the palm position. In most cases, it cannot achieve successful unlocking in one go and requires small adjustments to successfully identify it.

Realme GT5 Pro and LG G8 ThinQ are very similar in the way of palm unlocking. You can also unlock the phone by moving your palm in front of the front camera of the phone. Although the Realme GT5 Pro is significantly better than the LG G8 ThinQ in terms of recognition accuracy and unlocking efficiency, from the user experience point of view, the Realme GT5 Pro launched 4 years later does not seem to be as good as the LG G8 ThinQ in the field of palmprint unlocking. Create a real gap.

Source: True Me

At the beginning of the article, Xiao Lei Expressed concerns about the small space of mobile phones and the inability to fit more recognition modules. In today's highly involved smartphone market, mobile phone manufacturers need to be competitive in multiple fields such as imaging, processors, heat dissipation, and materials to better cope with pressure from all parties.

This also means that the space left for the palmprint recognition module inside the mobile phone is not ample. For the same amount of space, mobile phone manufacturers need to achieve technological breakthroughs to significantly improve this technology. user experience. But this will undoubtedly require a lot of research and development costs, and time, manpower, and money are all indispensable. Therefore, if we want to enjoy more efficient and smooth palmprint unlocking, we may need to wait patiently for a while.

Fingerprints, faces, palm prints, what’s next?

Since the birth of mobile phones, unlocking methods have been iteratively upgraded, from the initial digital password lock, to later pattern lock, to today’s fingerprint unlocking and face unlocking , iris unlocking, palmprint unlocking, not only the forms are changing, but the security factor is also constantly improving, but to be fair, there is currently no biometric technology that can confidently guarantee 100% security.

At present, mainstream Android flagship phones generally use fingerprint unlocking, and Apple mobile phones are about to fully switch to face unlocking. If security is the only premise, 3D structured light face recognition unlocking Undoubtedly the best choice of all mobile phones out there. However, considering cost and patent restrictions, mobile phone manufacturers naturally give priority to the optimal solution that takes into account safety, efficiency, and cost.

Source: Unsplash

Back to the question discussed in the subtitle , Xiaolei believes that "what is the next popular biometric technology" is not important. Whether it is to continue to dig into existing fingerprint, face and other recognition technologies, or to develop more new recognition technologies similar to palmprint recognition, as long as it is secure It can bring users better psychological expectations on the two key issues of sex and experience. This is a good biometric technology.

For the vast majority of ordinary users, the security of fingerprint and face unlocking is enough to ensure the safety of daily use, and the other functions are more for psychological massage role. Of course, it is undeniable that gimmicks are also very important to mobile phone manufacturers. The popular online phrases such as "I can do without it, but you can't live without it" are the best descriptions of such functions.

Written at the end

Users welcome more secure and effective biometric technology, but after a round of experience, Xiao Lei believes that although the current fast palmprint unlocking of the Realme GT5 Pro has withstood the test in terms of security, there is still a lot of room for optimization in terms of "fastness". It can only be said to be a supplementary solution in certain specific scenarios. .

#Perhaps in subsequent iterations, the experience of palmprint unlocking can be further improved. The new biometric technology has brought ample room for imagination to users, but its application on mobile phones has obviously not reached a mature level. In a short period of time, smartphones and other mobile devices used by the public will still be mainly unlocked by fingerprints and faces. If it were up to you to decide, which method do you think is the most convenient way to unlock your phone? Welcome to express your views in the comment area.

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