Reading the article, the defendant requested his phone from a detective, unlocked it in front of and with the knowledge the detective was watching. Later when the detective was inspecting the phone, he used the password he had seen the defendant use previously to unlock the phone. So it’s not as bad as a cop forcing you to unlock the phone. Good to know that in New Jersey police departments are considered public spaces and treat them accordingly.

Not making a judgement call on “orb” (which I assume is using some privacy preserving biometrics but honestly not sure), but why not leverage mobile devices? It seems like a lot of extra steps to use dedicated hardware for something like this.