The iris scanner of Samsung’s upcoming flagship smartphone Galaxy S9 will be improved to better recognize users’ eyes, a step that the firm hopes would solidify its lead in biometric verification technology for banking transactions.



Iris recognition is biometric identification that uses irises of an individual’s eyes, whose complex patterns are unique, stable, and can be seen from some distance.



“Galaxy S9’s iris scanner will have an improved camera lens and functions to make it better to recognize the eyes of users,” a source familiar with the matter told The Korea Herald.



“The iris camera lens will be improved to 3 megapixels from 2 megapixels of Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8 to capture clearer images. The scanner will better recognize users’ irises even when they wear eyeglasses, move their eyeballs or are in a too dark or too light environment,” the source added. The response time will also be shorter from the current one second.



Alongside the improvement in hardware, Samsung is developing software to more accurately and safely recognize users’ irises.



Samsung is also on target to expand the iris scanner into budget models possibly late next year or early 2019 with the ultimate aim of replacing physical banks with mobile banking, according to the source. Currently, Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8 are the only Samsung smartphones that have iris scanners.



A Samsung spokesperson said, “Iris scanner is the safest biometric authentication (among iris, fingerprint and face recognition) and we will continue to improve the system for upcoming smartphones for safer banking transactions,” without disclosing any detailed specifications of Galaxy S9.



Samsung is now accelerating the use of its biometric authentication into banking and financial services.





A user tries to unlock her Galaxy S8 through iris scanner. (Samsung Electronics)