Apple Tries To Patent A 'Solution' To The 'Analog Hole': Transmitters That Block Your Camera From Working
from the you'll-never-photograph-steve-jobs-again... dept
A few folks have sent over the news of an ongoing attempt by Apple to patent a sensor system that would allow people to set up transmitters that would send a signal to mobile phones that would prevent the camera from working.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.The patent was filed in 2009, which seems pretty late. I remember having conversations about how such things were technically feasible back in 2003 or 2004, just as cameraphones were starting to catch on, and there were a few early moral panics about them. It's difficult to see how this should be patentable, considering how widespread the idea was (along with discussions on how it could be implemented) way before this patent application was filed. Of course, the bigger issues are that (1) there are always going to be easy ways around that kind of thing, and (2) for theaters it seems like a pretty expensive proposition for pissing off your customers. Of course, it's not worth reading too much info into patents like this as an indicator of where Apple is going. The company files lots of patents, many of which are never really touched.
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Filed Under: analog hole, cameras, mobile devices, patents, sensors
Companies: apple
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logical evolution
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Re: logical evolution
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Police and government
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Cell phones killed in theaters
Of course, patenting it and actually implementing it properly without overreaching are two very different things.
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Only Phones
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Re: Only Phones
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infrared sensor?
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Photo copiers already have this technology built in, when you copy money with them they will put water markets or simply refuse to copy the money.
All this system did was change the trigger from paper money to an IR signal.
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Re:
http://www.amazon.com/58MM-Quality-Optical-Infrared-Threaded/dp/B003U68DZK
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http://www.fareastgizmos.com/other_stuff/ir_light_from_behind_the_cinema_screen_prevents_pi rates_from_recording_films_at_movie_theaters.php
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Heh, totally forgot about that last quote in the article. Makes sense that Apple would want to cash in on that number I guess; the MPAA thinks they are losing 3 Billion, we can charge them 6 Billion and claim a 2 year ROI. Now I'm sad I didn't file the patent :P
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Mr. Invisible
Can we have traffic cameras abide by this rule, too?
I'm starting to like this idea!
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Re: Mr. Invisible
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Who'd want this camera ?
And for phone manufacturers. Or will it be illegal to sell a camera that doesn't have this (thus forcing everyone to license Apple's IP ?).
Hardly a selling point for a new camera that it can be disabled. Or will people just find some jailbreak code to "fix" the phone when they get it home. In which case you are just punishing the innocent.
Will UK prominent soccer players be able to get "IR injunctions" to prevent the Paprazzi from photographing them with their mistresses ?".
My suggestion for a better technology ? Continuously (randomly) varying frame rate & interlacing. This means there will be a periodic interference with the camera's fixed frame sampling rate causing a poor end product noone will be able to watch. But the human eye won't be fazed by it in the theater.
Oops, should have patented it first...
Doesn't fix the ANALOG hole, but who is using analog video recorders in theaters these days ?
But I guess that would need new projectors and (maybe) cameras. Or could conventional digital recordings be post processed into this format ? In which case just new projectors.
Why not just mandate that all new build cameras must emit a signal when filming ? Then the police could run into the theater armed with a receiver and arrest the terrorists / sorry, bootleggers, without any change to theater infrastructure.
Or would that be overreacting ?
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I bet this will be mandatory somewhere
Like those ridiculous arrests at the Jefferson Memorial.
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LOL. It's the USA Mike, come on. They approve the most ridiculous patents. Why would it be different this time?
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Uh oh
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(Free internet cookie to anyone who recognizes this popup.)
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Why bother?
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Re: Why bother?
Because my mobile phone can be recording video that is uploaded to YouTube before you can smash it.
Yeah, take the phone. Smash it. Beat me up. The video is already out there.
Someone else (possibly halfway around the globe) can download it, and then re-upload it. Maybe even to different video "tube" websites. There's no putting the genie back in the tube of toothpaste.
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A way to not infringe the patent
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i Phone censored cameras
Signed Carl Barron chairman of agpcuk
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Patent to prevent this
Nobody else will bother implementing it as Apple has the (frankly shonky) patent.
Apple won't bother as only their phones would be affected.
Other manufacturers are not going to pay for a license to cripple their phones.
There is no way for anyone to make this work. Or make money off this idea.
Thankyou Apple.
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