Apple Patents a Way To Keep People From Filming At Concerts and Movie Theaters (qz.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Apple has patented a system that prohibits smartphone users from taking photos and videos at concerts, movie theaters and other events where people tend to ignore such restrictions. The patent has been award to Apple today and was first spotted by Patently Apple. QZ reports: "It outlines a system which would allow venues to use an infrared emitter to remotely disable the camera function on smartphones. According to the patent, infrared beams could be picked up by the camera, and interpreted by the smartphone as a command to block the user from taking any photos or videos of whatever they're seeing. The patent also outlines ways that infrared blasters could actually improve someone's experience at a venue. For example, the beams could be used to send information to museum-goers by pointing a smartphone camera at a blaster placed next to a piece of art." The report also mentions that the patent could in theory be used to help police limit smartphone filming of acts of brutality, or help a government shut off filming in certain locations. Last week, SlashGear reported that Alicia Keys is the latest musician to ban cellphones at her events.

Comments

Re:Of course, nothing prevents the owner from

[kheldan]

You're misunderstanding; it won't be a separate sensor, it'll be the camera itself, picking up a pattern transmitted by IR emitters in the area, and interpreted from the cameras' data stream. You'd have to cover the camera itself.

Naturally this would be leveraged and abused by law enforcement all over the world. This is an example of technology that needs to be outlawed. Apple is crossing a line if they actually incorporate this technology into their products, especially if they do not provide an immutable way for the owner of the phone to disable the function.

If concert promoters want to prevent filming or photographing of concerts then they just need to tell people to leave their phones in their cars or at home and confiscate them if they're smuggled in, returning them after the concert.