Music

Apple could stop iPhones from taking photos and videos at concerts

by Jeremy Mersereau

The days of endless seas of glowing smartphone screens at concerts could be at an end, if a new patent granted to Apple is anything to go by. Time to re-invest in Zippo stock!

Smartphone cameras are currently only able to interpret light in the visible spectrum, but that won’t be the case in the future, as Apple has been granted a patent for camera technology that can receive information from non-visible, infrared light.

Originally filed in 2011, and re-applied for in 2014, the patent describes a camera that can detect infrared light, allowing infrared-spectrum emitters to transmit signals directly to the camera, meaning venues and other spaces could potentially command your iPhone to disable still photography and video while at a show.

The same technology could be used to prohibit recording in any space where it’s unwanted/potentially financially disruptive, such as movie theatres, museums, and underground BDSM clubs, to name a few.

Of course, there’s no guarantee Apple will use this patent for anything, much less its worst-case implications. Maybe, in a fit of altruism, they only wanted this patent to shelve it and keep it from greedier, less restrained hands. I can’t really imagine who that could be, honestly, but there you go.

[h/t 9to5 Mac]