A new patent application filed by Apple at US Patent Office reveals that they might be developing a more secure and sophisticated method to prevent unauthorized access to the iPhone instead of the current method of using passcodes.

Apple’s patent suggests that they have developed a technique that will allow users to lock their iPhones using fingerprints or facial recognition with the help of an embedded biometric reader inside the iPhone.

AppleInsider who stumbled upon the patent application provides more details about the patent application:
“The solution, the company suggests, would be to automatically use a sensor either hidden within the device or else repurposed from its usual role. Devices could recognize a fingerprint or finger vein pattern simply by waiting for the user to touch the display, which would hide the sensors on or behind the screen. A forward-facing camera could alternately look for retinal patterns or even recognize the facial features of owners when they’re in the right position for use.

Notebooks could use the trackpad, palmrest and a webcam for a similar purpose.

Apple goes so far as to suggest the possibility of recognizing the user’s distinctive voice or even collecting DNA samples to recognize a user’s genetic sequence. Biometrics could also be context-sensitive and detect the shape of a user’s ear before allowing a call to go through, for example.

As an alternative to biometrics, Apple further proposes using other, non-alphanumeric but also less obvious locks: in hardware, owners could get access by providing their voice to a microphone or tilting a device in certain directions.

On touch devices, users could place their fingers in a particular pattern on screen, make gestures or tap out a sequence. A more direct alternative to passcodes could also exist by making users match up shapes and colors through on-screen icons.”