The idea’s been floating around the tech world for yonks, but now it’s one step closer to reality – a few tech blogs have dug in and revealed that Apple filed a patent back in 2011 intended to stop you from filming concerts and events on your iPhone.
Basically, it revolves around venues using infrared beams to disable the camera on the phones of concertgoers. Guess it’s a two-pronged problem they’re trying to solve here: people filming copyrighted material and also the sea of unbearably bright screens.
But also – as Fast Company points out – this kinda thing would probably piss people off so much that they’d never have the gall to implement it. That being said, the new iPhone probably has no analog headphone jack if early reports are to be believed, so maybe they don’t care about pissing people off any more.
Here’s how Apple described the patent – and the concept of putting a watermark over the top of photos taken at the event:
In some embodiments, a device may apply a watermark to detected images as an alternative to completely disabling a recording function. For example, a device may receive infrared signals with encoded data that includes a command to apply a watermark to detected images. In such an example, the device may then apply the watermark to all detected images that are displayed or stored (e.g., single pictures or frames of a video).
Look, let’s be honest: as terrible and stupid as this is, nobody watches the videos they take at concerts. Nobody. If anyone tells you they do, they are a liar.
Source: The Telegraph.
Photo: Getty Images.
