Samsung Working on Smartwatch That Checks Your Identity by Scanning Veins

Wearables in general and smartwatches in particular are evolving at a really fast pace, with more companies starting development of innovative models supposed to let you perform certain tasks straight from your wrist.



Samsung is one of the technology giants working on new features for smartwatches, and one possible innovation is a system that would automatically check your identity by scanning veins.
FastCompany has discovered a recent patent filed by Samsung, which shows that the South Koreans have created a new technology that uses infrared sensors to capture images of your veins when setting up the smartwatch. Afterward, whenever it needs to verify your identity, it takes new photos using the same sensors and compares the results, trying to determine whether you should be allowed to access certain features or not.
New opportunities

The patent describes how the technology works:
“A wearable device comprising: a sensor configured to capture a vein image of a user; and a processor configured to: in response to a function or an application being selected by the user, control the sensor to capture the vein image of the user wearing the wearable device; identify the user by comparing the captured vein image with at least one registered vein image; and in response to determining that the identified user has an execution authority for the selected function or application, execute the function or the application.”
In case you’re thinking that such a feature would have little sense these days, it actually creates more opportunities for smartwatches and gives new purposes to these devices.
For example, should a secure authentication system be found, smartwatches could be used for payment systems, but also for controlling car doors or access to hotel rooms, all from your wrist. Certainly, this also creates additional risks if cybercriminals find a way to break into them or in case they’re not working correctly, so it might take years before we see this turn into reality.