According to a Chinese report that surfaced over the weekend, a Xiaomi patent detailing a fingerprint recognition method via the handset's buttons has been spotted at China's State Intellectual Property Office.
The patent filing document said [English translation via Bing], "The device comprises a bottom fingerprint sensors and optical sensor provided in the terminal equipment of the cover glass; fingerprint identification circuit connected fingerprint sensor for fingerprint recognition sensor and the fingerprint information analysis and processing, obtain fingerprint analysis ; host processor, and an optical sensor and fingerprint identification circuit connections for the monitored optical sensor light information received to determine whether cover glass touch button operation; identity authentication based on fingerprint analysis results obtained fingerprint identification circuit."
While we are yet to hear any official word on the launch of the Xiaomi Mi 4's successor, the reports of a patent being filed by the company for a fingerprint recognition method do indicate the technology may just be used on the next flagship.
Until now, the fingerprint scanner technology has been seen as a high-end feature and was seen in devices such as the Apple iPhone 5s, Samsung Galaxy S5, HTC One Max, Apple iPhone 6, Samsung Galaxy S6, Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, and HTC One M9+. However, the feature went mainstream last year as many Indian handset brands such as iberry and Xolo also launched handsets with fingerprint sensors.
Considering that Xiaomi is yet to debut a handset with fingerprint recognition technology and we can expect the feature to be the highlight of the anticipated Mi 5.
According to preliminary specifications leaked on MIUI thread, the Mi 5 will include a 5.2-inch QHD display; 2.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon 805 SoC; Adreno 420 GPU; a 3GB of RAM; 16GB/64GB built-in storage models; a 16-megapixel rear camera, an 8-megapixel front camera and a 3,600mAh battery.
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