Samsung hints at upcoming iris detection features, will bring biometric sensors to low-end devices

Samsung is looking to bring biometric sensors including fingerprint sensors and beyond to not just future flagship models but also its low-end and entry-level smartphones as well. The Wall Street Journal reports that Samsung’s senior vice president Rhee In-jong confirmed that biometric sensors for security features— such as the fingerprint scanner already included in Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S5— will also soon come to the company’s less expensive devices. In addition, he hinted that iris detection features could be the next sensor technology it taps into for high-end devices:

“We’re looking at  various types of biometric [mechanisms] and one of things that everybody is looking at is iris detection,”  Samsung’s senior vice president Rhee In-jong told analysts and investors at a forum in Hong Kong.

“We, as a market leader, are following the market trend,” he said, noting that new types of sensors like those used for detecting the human iris will likely be available for adoption in high-end phones first.

Rhee, who is behind development of Samsung’s Knox security software, noted there are around 1.8 million active Knox users of the approximately 87 million devices that come with the software preinstalled. Samsung didn’t comment on how many paid customers the service has or when we might see iris detection features and biometric sensors appear in future devices.