Apple is always filing patents for strange and fantastic things that never seem to find their way into actual products. But an application published today details some interesting tech that we could actually see getting jammed into a future iPhone (for better or worse). By pairing an infrared sensor with the camera already on board, portable devices could receive data from transmitters placed, well, wherever. Beyond simply blasting out text and opening links like a glorified QR code, transmitters could disable certain features, such as the camera, to prevent recording at movie theaters and music venues.
If completely shutting off the cam seems a bit heavy-handed, watermarks can also be applied to photos identifying businesses or copyrighted content. Some potential uses are a little less Big Brother, like museums beaming information about exhibits to a user's or launching an audio tour. Obviously third parties would have to get behind the IR push and there's no guarantee that Apple will put this in a future iProduct.
8 comments:
apple want to take over!
Okay thats it. Apple killed it for me...
And this is why apple will fall to android in the end.
this serious?
Hm, I really don't see why this is so bad, but that's just me. It just seems like they're kissing the asses of movie makers so that people can't record films on their phones.
On another point though, using the infrared, you can actually use that as an X-ray viewer to a point.
Apple, I like your style.
At least we have our own hackers that would somehow turn this around on them. I felt the big brother theme before I even read it. :P
I think copyrighted content is so loosely used now it's just ridiculous.
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