Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 Iris Scanner lets you pay with your eyes
Samsung just revealed what may be the next step in biometrics.
The company's Galaxy Note 7, announced at a press event Tuesday, will allow you to complete mobile payments using the phone's built-in iris scanner. In other words: you'll be able to buy things with your eyes.
The handset's iris scanner will work similarly to current smartphones' fingerprint sensors: after you make a purchase with your phone (via Samsung Pay), you can choose to authenticate with either the fingerprint sensor or the iris scanner.
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It may sound more like something out of science fiction than a feature you would actually want to use but those who are particularly security conscious may want to consider it. Samsung tells us that each device can only be programmed to recognize one set of eyes and that it's impossible to "trick" the device with a photo.
Eventually, you'll also be able to use the Note's iris scanner to make in-app purchases with Samsung Pass, which allows third-party developers and banking institutions to take advantage of the company's eye scanning technology.
Perhaps more importantly though, the new iris scanning could give more users a reason to start using Samsung Pay, the Korean company's answer to Apple Pay and Android Pay. Unlike Google and Apple's mobile payments platforms, Samsung Pay doesn't rely on Near Field Communication (NFC) chips to make payments so you can use the technology at more in-store locations.
Whether or not people will feel comfortable scanning their eyeballs at checkout is another matter. Mashable's Raymond Wong tried out the Note 7's iris scanning on a pre-production phone and found it more clunky than using fingerprints alone. But that could very well change by the time the phone ships to the public.
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Topics Samsung
Karissa was Mashable's Senior Tech Reporter, and is based in San Francisco. She covers social media platforms, Silicon Valley, and the many ways technology is changing our lives. Her work has also appeared in Wired, Macworld, Popular Mechanics, and The Wirecutter. In her free time, she enjoys snowboarding and watching too many cat videos on Instagram. Follow her on Twitter @karissabe.
