There are so many ways to unlock your smartphone these days, ranging from passcodes, fingerprints, patterns, retina scans to face detection. But Amazon thinks that’s not enough and wants to add your ear to the mix.
The e-commerce giant has got an approval on a patent that recognizes the shape of your ear and unlocks your smartphone when you raise it up to answer a call. The human ear is also a unique identifier, similar to the fingerprint, making it one of the most secured ways to unlock device.
Along with unlocking the handset, the patented technology could also be used to adjust speaker volume by determining the distance between the phone and the ear.
So, is this really something useful? (other than adjusting the volume) i mean, the only time you raise your phone up to your ear is when you want to answer a phone call, even then, why would you want to unlock it?
Having said that, it’s also important to note that not all patents make their way to consumer products, which in this case is also unlikely. Amazon filed this particular patent back in 2011, so whatever plans it had for it might already be canceled by now.
