To offer users greater flexibility and convenience, the Galaxy S9 introduces support for innovative biometric authentication features that add new layers to the Galaxy line’s already stout security. Let’s take a closer look at how innovations like Intelligent Scan and Dedicated Fingerprint will streamline how users access their phone and safeguard their personal data.

An Intelligent Approach to Authentication

To make unlocking the Galaxy S9 as simple as possible, Samsung combined its advancements in iris scanning, facial-recognition and intelligent technologies to create a seamless biometric security solution that offers users fast and secure access to their device.

Intelligent Scan is a deep learning-based verification solution that utilizes the collective strength of the Galaxy S9’s iris scanning and facial recognition technologies to allow users to unlock their device and access protected content with a simple glance. The solution works by carefully analyzing your face’s visible features, as well as the lighting conditions of your surroundings, and determining the optimal authentication method to open your phone. Intelligent Scan’s multimodal approach allows it to ensure that biometric authentication occurs successfully in virtually any environment.

The Galaxy S9’s advanced facial-recognition technology utilizes an immense amount of data to recognize your face’s distinct features from a wide range of angles, and its iris-scanning technology has been enhanced to identify unique iris patterns from greater distances. This powerful combination of cutting-edge biometric and intelligent innovations allows the Galaxy S9 to recognize users even when a piece of clothing or an accessory is obstructing part of their face. So you won’t be required to remove your cap or adjust your scarf whenever you’d like to unlock your phone.

Going forward, Samsung plans to integrate Intelligent Scan support into a wide range of applications, beginning with Samsung Pass. Adding this functionality to the app will allow users to enjoy the same streamlined security when entering website logins and other sensitive information within the Samsung Internet mobile app.

Premium Security at Your Fingertips

The Galaxy S9 also introduces new capabilities to the rear-mounted fingerprint sensor that make this tried-and-true authentication method even more useful.

The sensor, which is conveniently located beneath the camera for easy access, now allows users to register fingerprints with a single swipe, and designate a Dedicated Fingerprint to use to apply an additional layer of security to their device’s Secure Folder. This encrypted folder offers a safe, conveniently accessible home for private apps and files that users can securely lock with their Dedicated Fingerprint, or with a PIN, pattern, passcode or iris scan.

When users unlock their phone using this finger, rather than bringing them to the home screen, the device will automatically display their Secure Folder’s contents. Users can also select how they would like the folder to be displayed – either as a traditional folder, or as a launcher. The latter will launch a secure home screen that’s populated only by their designated private apps, as well as a Secure Folder widget that allows them to easily add more.

Together, the streamlined biometric technologies featured in the Galaxy S9 and S9+ offer users a mobile experience that’s not only more seamless and convenient, but more personalized than ever.

^*All functionality, features, specifications and other product information provided in this document including, but not limited to, the benefits, design, pricing, components, performance, availability, and capabilities of the product are subject to change without notice or obligation.

In a digital world that was once only protected by PIN numbers, consumers now have more choices than ever to protect the security of their devices and personal data thanks to advances in biometric technologies. The Galaxy S8 and S8+ provide strengthened security features and enhanced convenience through a combination of biometrics, including innovative iris scanning technology, familiar fingerprint scanning and new facial recognition capabilities. Secured by Samsung’s trusted Knox security platform, the Galaxy S8 gives users the peace of mind that comes from knowing their biometric information is protected.

Face-to-Face with Mobile Security

Samsung’s new facial recognition technology has been added to the Galaxy S8 to enable users to unlock their smartphone quickly and conveniently by simply looking at the front of the device. The technology works by utilizing an immense amount of data to recognize patterns, such as small differences in facial features.

When a user opts to access their Galaxy S8 using facial recognition verification, the smartphone detects, aligns, extracts and compares facial landmark points such as the width of the user’s nose or the distance between their eyes to stored data to grant or deny access. As the user continues to utilize the feature more and more, the phone gets better at recognizing them, despite small changes in the angle or position of their face during the verification process.

With this new feature, users can enjoy a more convenient mobile experience and also rest assured knowing that their data is encrypted in the TrustZone protected by Knox.

For Your Eyes Only

Yet another biometric feature that has been added to the Galaxy S8 is iris scanning, a method of biometric identification that uses mathematical pattern recognition of images of an individual’s iris, either from one or both eyes. To obtain these images, an authentication device scans the iris—the thin, colored ring of the eye that regulates the amount of light that reaches the retina.

Each individual has a uniquely different and highly intricate iris pattern in each eye, which is fully developed at a very young age and remains unchanged throughout one’s lifetime. This, combined with the fact that iris patterns are almost impossible to replicate makes iris scanning one of the most secure and reliable biometric techniques available.

To enable iris scanning, the Galaxy S8 was equipped with a dedicated iris camera, which utilizes a special image filter to receive and recognize the reflected images of the irises with a red infrared (IR) LED light. This red light allows for the best range for iris scanning. Furthermore, unlike traditional visible (or RGB) images, which can be affected by iris color or ambient light, infrared images display clear patterns and have low light reflection. Samsung’s proprietary technology also makes use of the light emitted from the Galaxy S8’s display so the scanner can receive data even in low light environments.

Once a user registers his or her iris information on the Galaxy S8, it is stored as an encrypted code. When a user attempts to access content, such as a protected app, the IR LED and iris camera work together to capture the iris pattern for recognition, and to extract and digitize the pattern, and compares the digitized pattern with the encrypted code to verify identification.

Just like fingerprint and facial biometric data, the user’s iris data is also encrypted and stored safely in the hardware protected by the Knox platform. Furthermore, only one person can register his or her iris information, which means that even if the device is stolen or lost and someone else is able to gain access to the smartphone, the user’s information won’t be compromised.

Compared to conventional devices that employ iris scanning, the Galaxy S8 offers a better user experience. The iris preview screen, for example, is displayed in full color, while 17 preloaded iris masks add a bit of fun to the verification process. Furthermore, Galaxy S8 users don’t even need to touch their phone to verify their identity since the iris verification process is initiated immediately once the user turns on the display.

Added Services for Enhanced Convenience

Leveraging Samsung’s new and enhanced biometrics technology, the Galaxy S8 offers various services to provide an additional layer of security.

The first is Secure Folder, an encrypted folder that lets users manage private apps and files securely via PIN, pattern, passcode or biometric verification. Users may utilize this service to keep private and personal data, such as banking information, sandboxed separately on their smartphone for additional security and privacy.

Another added security feature, Samsung Pass, enables users to quickly and easily log into mobile banking apps and websites on the Samsung Internet Browser using biometric authentication. Because users don’t have to spend time repeatedly inputting usernames and passwords, Samsung Pass adds an element of convenience to the Galaxy S8. By supporting multiple types of biometric authentication*, Samsung Pass will allow greater flexibility to deliver a secure and convenient user experience across multiple industry verticals.

In addition to secure storing and faster access, Samsung is also establishing partnerships with major financial institutions to explore the integration of its biometrics verification technology into more mobile banking apps.

*Samsung Pass currently supports fingerprint recognition, and will support iris scanning and facial recognition in select markets in the near future.