AppleInsider is supported by its audience and may earn commissions as an Amazon Associate and Affiliate Partner on eligible purchases. These affiliate partnerships do not affect our edited content.
Apple is researching how to attach a camera lens to the Apple Watch, and one suggestion is to make it part of the familiar digital crown.
Imagine pointing at someone and your Apple Watch and taking a picture without your knowledge. It’s not creepy at all.
There is no doubt that Apple has taken privacy measures. The stalking behavior “works” because we don’t bundle it with AirTags. And the new patent granted for this idea emphasizes the need for privacy seven times.
However, the “Camera Clock” patent itself does not detail anything about privacy. Doing nothing is not the job of patents, but explaining the core proposals. Therefore, privacy is important, but the text suggests it’s a problem for someone else.
“Current Disclosure is intended for the entity responsible for the collection, analysis, disclosure, transfer, storage, or other use of such personal information data to comply with established privacy policies and / or privacy practices. I am doing it. “
Apple has previously patented a proposal to display a camera embedded under the display of the Apple Watch. Even this new patent isn’t just for the use of digital crowns.
“Additionally or alternatively … the camera can be implemented as a rear-facing camera configured to capture photos from the back of the watch’s housing,” suggests the patent. “If the watch housing is worn on the wrist, the wrist can prevent the camera from taking pictures of the scene, but through the release mechanism of the mounting interface or by removing the housing with the watch. , The housing can be removed from the wrist. Band, take a picture with a rear-facing camera. “
Therefore, you can take the picture off and hold it to make it look like a spy, not a stalker.
Apple can turn the watch face into a viewfinder, suggesting that “the camera flash can be versatile for optical heart rate monitoring and other physiological detection applications when the watch is worn on the wrist.” doing.
However, this idea is mostly a secondary idea and does not address issues such as how to lock the watch when it is removed from the wrist. The main purpose of this patent is this idea of attaching the camera to a digital crown.
“”[A] The watch can include a rotatable dial, such as a rotatable crown used for digital inputs. “You can incorporate the camera into the assembly so that you can capture the image through the opening that penetrates the dial,” he said.
“The lens can be integrated inside and / or behind the dial opening to focus on the image of the scene,” he continues. “The image sensor located behind the opening can be further configured to detect the movement of markings on the dial, as a camera for the image sensor to capture pictures of the scene, and to rotate the dial. Allows it to function as a sensor to detect. Detection of rotational input. “
There are two accompanying problems that arise from attaching the lens to the digital crown. First, the patent does not explain how to take a picture.
The obvious possibility is that the watch face will turn into a viewfinder again and there will be a button to take a shot. Alternatively, Apple can extend the new Apple Watch accessibility feature to take shots, for example, when a user clenches a fist.
However, another problem is how to attach the lens to the digital crown, which is already a fairly complex machine. This patent doesn’t cover that, but Apple already does.
One of the two inventors of this patent is Tyler S. Bushnell, whose previous work included a patent application to renovate the digital crown. The top of the crown can be a touch-sensitive area rather than a mechanical device. This may provide space for the camera lens.
Even if Apple combines these two ideas, the photos taken with the touch-sensitive Digital Crown may be a bit dirty.
..
Commentaires
Enregistrer un commentaire