The iPad Air 4’s power button Touch ID was an “incredible feat”

Apple has iPad Air 4 September 15It features an updated A14 Bionic chip, a design inspired by the iPad Pro line, and a larger 10.9-inch display. Undoubtedly, the iPad Air’s biggest starting point was the biometric change, and Touch ID has moved from the now-defunct home button to the power button at the top.

Talk about iJustine and Jenna Ezarik Podcast Same brain Announced Saturday, hardware engineering Apple VP John Ternus and product marketing Apple VP Bob Borchers talked about the changes the iPad lineup received during the September event.

For TouchID on tablets, Borchers described the change as “an amazing engineering feat of incorporating a fingerprint sensor with all features and all security into its form factor.”

When asked if the TouchID of the power button uses the same technology as the original, but with a smaller form factor, Ternus suggests it is the “technological evolution” used in the system. Did. “I wanted a full-screen design, so I wanted to remove the home button on my chin, so I had to figure out another place for the Touch ID sensor.”

“It’s this very narrow aspect ratio that made it so difficult,” Ternus suggested because it’s on a slim button. “If you think about it, it’s just a smaller slice of fingerprint than you can do with older traditional sensors.”

Ternus went on to say, “You need to be very sensitive, and as you go through the registration process and continue to adapt over time, you need to capture a wider field of view of your fingerprint. So how do you touch it with your finger? But that particular part is captured so you can play the match. “

“A lot of algorithmic work, a lot of hardcore silicon” was done to make “a sensor so capable in such a small space”, but Borchers pointed out that it was “really sophisticated” for other items. In areas that needed to be managed while introducing new sensors that were “spaces”.

“On a cellular iPad, the top of the enclosure is the antenna,” Ternus explained. That said, “We needed to know how to put this very sensitive Touch ID sensor just inside the very sensitive antenna and make them work. We don’t talk to each other or cause interference. Please. “

“As these products become more feature-rich, apparently compact and condensed, it’s becoming more and more important for our team to work really, really closely,” he continued. It was. “The Touch ID and Antenna teams are in locksteps throughout the engineering process.”

Apple’s design for the touch ID sensor on the power button may be adopted in more products in the future. Analysts the day before the iPad Air 4 launch Ming-Chi Kuo Forecast Other iPad models If you don’t have Face ID, the change will be adopted in 2021.