Iris scanning eventually heading to mid-range Galaxy phones

It might not be surprising to hear that the new Galaxy Note 7 will be just the first Samsung handset to spot iris scanning technology, but the company’s mobile division president, DJ Koh, is already thinking ahead about mid-range smartphones that could include iris scanners as well.

Speaking at the sidelines of the Unpacked event in New York, Koh revealed a little about the company’s grander plans for iris scanning technology. In the future, not only will our eyes be used to unlock our smartphones, the plan is to integrate the technology for use with banking apps and other pieces of secure software. Koh was not specific about any other parties that Samsung is working with right now, but an API is already confirmed to be in the works. Samsung took a similar approach to increase development support for its wearables through a dedicated SDK.

“We did not put iris scanning in the flagship model just to do ‘unlock’. In the long run, through third parties and API, we want to connect it with apps. For mobile banking, we are thinking of applying iris scanning for large transactions, and are already talking with banks in some countries … We have a road map for the technology and moving accordingly.” – president of Samsung’s mobile division, DJ Koh

For third party developers to really get behind the technology, clearly iris scanning technology will need to be in the hands of many more consumers, and not just those willing to spend the cash on cutting edge technology. Koh believes that the usual falling prices of components will be the key to bringing the technology to mid-range phones. It may take a while before we see this in a Galaxy A series or similar handset, but that very much seems to be the plan.

“Through continued cost cutting, iris scanning can trickle down to mid-end models … There is a view that Android is weak in security compared to its competitor and we want to expand software security that can overcome this image.” – Koh

Do you believe that the future of mobile security lies in iris scanning, or are fingerprints and passwords a;ready enough for you?