It looks Apple’s iDevices could someday become self-aware. Okay, so maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but a patent application published today by the USPTO does highlight Apple’s patent plans for the ability to bake “situational awareness” into their products.

So what exactly does this mean? The idea is that your iPhone or iPad could perform situation tasks based “on different conditions”. The patent was filed in September of 2011 and lays out the technology for mobile phones, media players and more.

Using embedded sensors, an Apple device could detect external noises, temperatures, lighting conditions, time of day and more, using that data to react appropriately. Going to bed? Your device could automatically lower the ring volume or perhaps even go into vibrate mode without any direct input from the user.

“The present invention relates to an intuitive portable electronic device that anticipates or predicts a user’s desires on how they would like use the portable electronic device,” reads the patent filing. “The portable electronic device is therefore ready to perform a user function when the user desires to perform the function. The user does not have to perform additional steps such as selecting menu options in a GUI or activating a button or switch.”

More than likely such a device would also get to “know you”, figuring out your habits, likes and dislikes and then would use that information to make ‘decisions’ on its own on how to best serve you.

Does this patent mean we will see this technology in a future iProduct? It is certainly possible, but sometimes these kinds of patents are more about protecting potential ideas from being stolen and never actually surface beyond the conceptual stages.

Still, if Apple makes this a reality, this could be one small step in the direction of truly “thought-capable” AI. Ipad control for robots today, world domination tomorrow.

What do you think of the patent, would you like to see something like this in future electronic devices or not? Share your thoughts below.

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Rather than simply vibrating the device each time you touch a virtual button, this system shows a multi-tiered haptics system that is intelligent. The idea is that by having multiple layers that can protrude and recede, you can create raised buttons on a touch-based display. That virtual button, in effect, just became a real button that you can feel is raised up from the rest of the screen.

The applications for this technology are endless, of course, from better gaming controls to geological maps with real 3D depth. The top layer of the screen would presumably be elastic, but it’s still not entirely clear exactly how this works. Either way, is this something that Cupertino is exploring for the next iPhone or iPad? Would it really be as polished as Apple wants it to be?

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There was a patent application submitted by Apple that seems to approach that kind of functionality. It talks about a user interface that utilizes 3D eye-tracking. If we take the example of a first person shooter game, you could simply look toward the right side of the screen for your character to turn and look toward the right side of the environment. The same kind of idea could be extended to photography and videography too.

The technology would involve a front-facing camera, of course, but it’d also take advantage of data coming in from the accelerometer and compass to alter the perspective of the three-dimensional visuals being depicted on the device display. The patent seems to lend itself to portable iOS devices, but it also leaves the door open for 3D eye-tracking in an iMac or MacBook. After all, Microsoft is doing the Kinect for PCs too.

To be fair, the original filing for this patent was way back in Q3 2010 and we haven’t seen Apple do anything with it since then. If that’s the case, they may have already abandoned the project… or it could be coming to the iPhone 5, iPhone 6, or some other device in the future. As always, time will tell.

[ source via Patently Apple ]

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With the next iPad, it’s reasonable to expect a higher resolution screen and a more powerful processor, but it’s possible that we could be getting a hefty dose of augmented reality when it comes to the next-gen tablet too. Apple recently filed a few patents and they seem to outline at least two interesting propositions.

Let’s start on the lower end of the spectrum. In this instance, the iPad display would be split in half. The top half is a live video as being shown by the back camera on the iOS tablet. The bottom half, however, is a 3D representation of what you see, updating in real time, highlighting recognized objects. Your location and orientation would be based on GPS, WiFi, cell tower ID, as well as motion sensors. In this way, it works kind of like Sky Map for Android, but for buildings and such.

But that’s a split-screen. Where the patents start to get more interesting is in the implementation of multiple displays layered on top of one another, some of which can be transparent at times. This would overlay the AR information onto the main screen, which I think works a lot better. In both instances, there could also be a “share” button so you can share your AR viewpoint with another iOS buddy. You can also place a virtual pushpin off in the AR 3D distance and the app would tell you how to get there.

And Apple might take it even further too with fully transparent displays. Samsung has already demonstrated this, but Apple would likely polish it up. A possibility would be replacing (or overlaying) windows in a tour bus with these transparent displays, providing an AR viewpoint for the travelers as they pass points of interest.

Alas, these are just patents. Apple files tons of them and most never make it to production in any form. That said, wouldn’t you want to see some crazy clear AR action on your iPad 6?

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