In the past few weeks, rumours have been circulating that Apple would be doing away with its physical home button, not only for the iPhone, but iPad too. A newly filed patent with the US Patent and Trademark office appears to support such reports.

The patent features a display with a series of infrared diodes that could read or scan fingerprints without a physical button being present. If for example, such a feature was integrated with Apple's taptic engine, currently found on the iPhone 7, the home button we're familiar with could be done away with.

With Touch ID already embedded into the latest MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, Apple may be looking take the ability of its displays to read information a step further. Apple has not commented on any of these developments, but they appear to point to the fact that the company may very well have an edgeless OLED screen sporting iPhone X in the works.