MWC 2015: Qualcomm announces Sense ID 3D Finger Scanner, Zeroth Machine Learning Engine and Snapdragon 820 Processor

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Chip maker Qualcomm at the MWC 2015 tech show has unleashed its latest device security feature, an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner called Qualcomm Snapdragon Sense ID 3D Fingerprint Technology.

This technology makes use of ultrasonic waves to go through the exterior layers of your finger and create a 3D map on your fingerprint. The ultimate aim of this technology is to prevent duplication, and it is tough to duplicate with this technology in comparison to usual capacitive scanners on iPhone 6 and the new Galaxy S6.

The Sense ID scanner is capable of recognizing the sweat glands and the outer layers of your fingerprint ridges. Interestingly, it works through plastic, metal and glass as well, and also unlike the other scanners this technology can scan your finger even when any lotion or other grime is present.

In addition to this technology, Qualcomm has also announced its latest machine learning platform called Zeroth that is aimed to learn and adapt the way you use it. Qualcomm Zeroth is claimed to be a cognitive platform that will let your device learn about you and customize itself.

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The data collected by the machine computing platform is pushed to the cloud. For now, smartphones and tablets are the prime targets of this platform, but it is believed to be expanded to other categories in the future.

Besides the Sense ID 3D technology and Zeroth platform, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 820 chipset. This new SoC includes a custom Kryo graphic unit and a dominant LinFET process.

The new process is believed to go for sampling to manufacturers only in the second half of this year. Also, the devices based on the processor will launch only in 2016.

Lately, Qualcomm went deeper into the unlicensed spectrum and it was claimed at the event that it is working on LTE-U. Also, Qualcomm is trying a demo of the first Cat.11 LTE modems at the tech show that can render up to 600 Mbps download speeds.