Apple’s future iPhones could respond to your heartbeat, breath and skin tone.Since Apple launched the iPhone in 2007, it has redefined how people interact with their mobiles. All of a sudden, we could flick through photos and zoom in on areas we wanted, as if we’re grabbing the moment with our bare hands.
Apple managed to introduce a language we speak through our fingers. Anyone can pick up an iPhone and instinctively know how to use it. Now they want to take this philosophy a step further.
The company is investing in a series of new innovations dubbed presence sensing. In short, it’s a series of new technologies that will allow your smartphone to recognise users according to their skin tone, heartbeat, breath patterns or faces. (Apple’s rival, Google, has already introduced the latter with Android’s Face Unlock.)
![]() It’s said God gave life to man through a single touch. Apple has done the same with their phones and tablets. |
According to Patently Apple, a website dedicated to “Apple’s spirit of innovation,” Apple has patented three presence sensing applications.
“Being that this is Apple’s third detailed presence related patent, we could safely say that it’s becoming an important trend worth noting going forward,” report the site.
“Apple began their work on this project back in October 2009 and followed through with an extensive patent application in December 2011.”
Their latest patent filing reveals Apple is experimenting with Sonar technology, in addition to considering radar and a carbon dioxide sensor. Radar would be sensitive enough to identify a person’s heartbeat while another sensor could identify the carbon dioxide emissions from a person’s breath.
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Future iPhones (and presumably iPads) will use these sensors to intuitively awaken from standby, improving the user experience while reducing how much power is used.
Patently Apple cites an example of the sensors at work, describing the screen’s image zooming in as you approach the phone and zooming out as you walk away.
They also report Apple is working on a feature that will prevent iPhones from vibrating off a hard surface and onto the floor.
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