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

Posted by BeauHD on from the remote-control dept.

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.

12 of 266 comments (clear)

  1. Great! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now the cops can abuse people and you can't film them doing it!

    1. Re:Great! by umghhh · · Score: 5, Informative

      They will not notice it if they have not experienced anything else in their whole conscious life. I see it with my fellow Germans that live in the West and of whom none saw communism in action. They do not even see a point of protecting privacy after all if you did not do anything wrong you do not have to be afraid I was told. I was also asked if there i anything that I wold be afraid, These are the same people who just cannot believe that anybody in local media or politics can lie to them. Hey they are even majority here! People that complain are dangerous as we know. Paranoid people are too to be suspected of wrongdoing. Interesting world - only exceptional cases will doubt and object. They are then easy to handle. The only difference between now and the older times is that there is no hardly a place that is not a hellhole where one can find a refuge.

    2. Re:Great! by amicusNYCL · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, assuming you're using an Apple iPhone(tm) with IR technology that responds to random outside commands, and the police are using an Apple iPhone Deactivator(tm) to remotely control your phone, then yes you won't be able to record them doing that. But, don't worry Apple fan, people with other phones who didn't want to pay royalties to Apple for the privilege of having their phones remotely controlled by random outside commands will still be able to film your beatdown.

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    3. Re:Great! by macs4all · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It helps authorities disable your camera so you can't record them kicking your arse onto an encrypted device and/or up to the iCloud....

      Maybe. But it is pretty clear that all cell phone (and maybe camera) manufacturers will be forced by the government to license this technology from Apple, and I expect the final version will not work with a separate IR sensor, it will just use the camera lens to capture the "DO NOT FILM" command and act on it. Of course you could cover up the lens, but that defeats the device too. I doubt if you can effectively block the signal that disables the camera and still have enough light to film the cops beating you or your family.

      Hmmm. The IR thingy will be, um, IR. That is to say, outside of the visible light spectrum (or at least very close to the edge of visibility).

      Howabout a little IR filter that blocks the IR and lets visible light through. Many surveillance cams already have such a thing to cut down on daylight "washout" from extraneous IR from sunlight.

      By the way, there was some noise on Slashdot a couple of years ago about a very similar Apple patent. That one never went anywhere, either.

      Sometimes I think Apple patents things they DON'T want to see developed, with absolutely no intention of actually developing the ideas themselves, either.

  2. Fascinating... by _xeno_ · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's a really interesting idea from Apple.

    Because last I checked, the iPhone camera since the iPhone 4 has an IR filter on it and can't see IR light. Found this out at the Science Museum when there was a display of the visible spectrum and it told you to take out your phone and look at it via the camera.

    Surprise! iPhones can't see the IR lights, but other phone cameras could.

    --
    You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
  3. Re:Black electricians tape by devjoe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The intent was that they would be picked up by the camera, making this option prevent using the camera at all. But you have exactly the right idea; people will use a film that filters out that IR frequency while being transparent to visible light.

  4. Re:Of course, nothing prevents the owner from by kheldan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    --
    Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
  5. How about No! by DarkOx · · Score: 4, Insightful

    MY PHONE should obey MY instructions. If I say take of picture of something it should do so, not ask some third party not me if its alright.

    What I do with the phone is my responsibility.

    --
    Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
  6. Five years ago by elistan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For what it's worth, this patent was discussed five years ago on Slashdot. The earliest date for this idea of Apple's appears to be December 2, 2009.

  7. This is the greatest iPhone innovation since... by JoeyRox · · Score: 4, Funny

    the removal of the headphone jack.

  8. Re:Of course, nothing prevents the owner from by sabri · · Score: 4, Informative

    Put up a sign stating that cellphones observed during the concert will be confiscated

    That does not make it legal to confiscate anything that I legally own.

    The only thing that a venue can do is ask me to leave. If I refuse, they can call the cops for trespassing, but that's about it.

    observers violating those terms deserve some kind of negative reinforcement

    Which will be limited to being thrown out.

    --
    I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
  9. Re:Of course, nothing prevents the owner from by AC-x · · Score: 4, Informative

    No, they don't.

    Technically they do, otherwise synthetic fabrics would come out purple (see "Infrared / Ultraviolet pollution" half way down the page). They're just not 100% effective so a little IR gets through, and depends on the camera as some are worse than others.