The early leak has come courtesy of GizmoChina, which says that the iris scanner will be hidden behind a small slot built into the phone’s casing. The technology can be used to unlock the phone as well as protect particular files from being viewed (should you need to hand the mobile to someone else). As yet there’s been no official word from Viewsonic about the handset but the promotional video GizmoChina has found looks authentic enough.
We get a shot of a businessman and his partner using the eye-scanning feature to unlock their phones, make purchases with a tap, and access email. It looks like the phone will also be compatible with a range of different camera attachments that can be used to change the angle or style of a shot. The device is rumored to be sporting a 13-megapixel Sony-made lens and is slated for release at some point in 2015.
Other suggested specs for the V55 include a 64-bit Snapdragon 410 quad-core processor running at 1.4GHz, 2GB RAM and 16GB or 32GB of storage. The display will stretch to 5.5 inches with a resolution of 1920 x 1080p. Those are decent enough specs even before the iris-scanning capabilities are taken into account, though there’s no word on how much all of this will cost.
Viewsonic is better known for making monitors and last released a smartphone back in 2012; still, if it can bring this eyeball-tracking technology to the market, it’ll be sure to make its competitors sit up and take notice — we already know that Samsung is one of the manufacturers working on something similar.
