Camera Lens
If I can't see it, I don't know where to _not_ put my greasy finger.
Apple files disappearing-feature iPhone patent
Apple has filed a patent application for the ability to hide some of a device's components – such as its camera, biometric sensors, or even its entire display – until they are needed. "Electronic devices are becoming more and more sophisticated, capable of performing a multitude of tasks from image capture to identity …
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Friday 12th October 2012 07:15 GMT Tristan Young
Apple owns the USPTO
How can Apple get a patent for technology which already exists, and has already been deployed?
Whether it's a window which turns opaque, a little sliding door, or friggin' curtains, it's the same concept that's been used on all-in-one cameras for many years. All Apple has done is take someone else's idea, and move it one tiny step forward, by changing the type of material the cover is made from. I've seen this tech in TV shows and movies, where hidden controls on a touch-based interface suddenly reveal themselves, like a fingerprint reader.
It doesn't even solve the problem of fingerprints on the window causing a loss of contrast and clarity for the camera sensor. In cases like this, a moveable door (motorized or otherwise) would still be better.
Patents like this are proof the USPTO is a corrupt organization, that is owned by large, unfriendly corporations such as Apple.
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Friday 12th October 2012 08:14 GMT Michael Shaw
what is patentable
It is patentable to take existing patented designs and patterns and combine them in a new way. Some companies make their money that way.
The problem is, the patent office does not face a financial penalty for granting trivial patents, its society that suffers for patents on trivial and obvious things, so there is no incentive for patent offices to search for prior art, and the "not obvious to someone skilled in the area" becomes translated as "this patent officer had not thought of it before"
I have had ideas of mine patented by companies employing me, and will at somepoint file patents of my own. patents (and patent insurance policies) are weapons for a software company, which on occasion are there to be used. Based on the way the international level is changing, this is going to be increasingly important for european companies to avoid US competitors obliterating them should US filed patents become enforceable in europe.
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Friday 12th October 2012 08:16 GMT Danny 14
depends what you mean by "sensor"
My sharp TV has capacitive buttons. Depending on which screen I am in depends on which ones light up and are accessible. If none are applicable then they are all dark and you cannot see them or access the function (disabled). My galaxy S2 also has buttons that are hidden and non functional until needed. I would sure class a capacitive button as a sensor - that is how they work. Surely this is the same thing?
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Friday 12th October 2012 08:46 GMT Anonymous Coward
Examples...
Take your smartphone out of your pocket, it doesn't matter which brand, trust me. Now look at the screen and use the features, oh wait what's that, can't do it because your phone automatically hid the screen in a battery saving plummet into darkness.
After I tried this on my phone, I wanted to do a little search and found the previously hidden search button really handy.
Except non of this really matters because Apple patents in the US are actually corrections to a missing log of patents that should have been credited to Apple before any prior art. Not many people know this but TV and Film studios are paying licensing fees to Apple because of patent infringement in shows like The Tomorrow People and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
http://www.reghardware.com/2011/02/07/apple_ipad_tomorrow_people/
http://wn.com/clip1:_Apple_iPad_in_the_1969_classic:_2001_A_SPACE_ODYSSEY
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Friday 12th October 2012 09:03 GMT Badvok
Even as an ardent self-confessed fandroid I'm starting to get sick of the Apple bashing on the comments pages here.
iLike this innovation and I think it is definitely a patentable concept - if design patents are allowed that is. While clearly not an actual invention it is certainly a design innovation that I have never seen before. The idea that a scanner/camera is hidden from view in the smooth uniformly coloured face of the device until it is needed sounds great.
And in answer to some of the other commentards:
This is in no way similar to something that is always there but lights up to indicate its presence, i.e. buttons or screens.
This is in no way similar to a lens cover that opens and shuts, this is a permanent lens cover that alters its transparency.
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Friday 12th October 2012 10:59 GMT Anonymous Coward
You are almost righht wth those two points
This patent is not THE SAME as "something that .. lights up to indicate its presence" or a physical cover that opens and shuts, but it is a LOGICAL EXTENSION of those ideas, is therefore obvious and not patentable.
Not to mention the prior art on this specific mechanism.
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Friday 12th October 2012 11:52 GMT Keep Refrigerated
@GavinC Re: You are almost righht wth those two points
Apple hasn't done it either yet... they basically just patented an idea that anyone who has either (a) read/watched a decent amount of sci-fi for the last 30 years or (b) works in the hardware industry, has probably already had - but never thought patentable.
Apple patents things that other people have already thought of, but have too much decency and self-respect to claim they are suddenly the sole inventors (without doing any actual inventing).
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Friday 12th October 2012 09:25 GMT daveeff
dont get me start barred
Don't all computers have features that are only visible when you want them? The difference here is they are hardware sensors not software widgits and they are hidden / revealed again by h/w.
A start button that brings up a list of programs, a command typed that displays a program...
Come to think of it, my display is a plain black surface until you press the "power on" switch and then all the stuff you want appears - magic!
I am amazed at what the US will allow you to patent.
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Friday 12th October 2012 09:29 GMT Glostermeteor
If Apple get this as a patent that really will bring the bar even lower with regards to corporate greed and outlandishness. How can you patent a concept like that? Anyone heard of a cover for your tablet or mobile phone? That hides components until they are needed. Or what about a curtain on your window? That also accomplishes the same thing. This concept has been around for thousands of years, so for Apple to claim they have invented is completely beyond the pale. They are nothing more than a band of rip off merchants and highway robbers!
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Friday 12th October 2012 11:47 GMT GavinC
i'm not sure what kind of curtains you have in your house, but last time I closed my curtains, it was still blindingly obvious that there was a window there. The day I close the curtains and can no longer see where the window used to be then you may have a point, but until then this is a new concept that has not been done before.
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Friday 12th October 2012 12:42 GMT EvilGav 1
Oh dear lord
Just because it can now be done "electronically" or "mobile" doesn't make it patentable.
Numerous compact digital cameras have had "hidden" lenses, whereby the "on" button makes it appear, which would seem to cover the "mobile" element.
And as numerous people have pointed out, most of the current crop of Android phones have buttons that don't "appear" until you activate the phone.
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