In today’s world cities are getting denser and people travel in close proximity. This gives rise to a problem called shoulder surfing. Shoulder surfing is looking over someone’s shoulder, to get information from the person’s phone. Shoulder surfing is an effective way to get information in crowded places because it’s relatively easy to stand next to someone and watch as they fill out a form, enter a PIN at an ATM or pay for something using a credit card. Besides, this is a big privacy concern, a person sitting next to you sometimes reads your chat. If people are sitting around you and you are using a smartphone, then the person sitting next to you mustn’t be looking at your phone.
To solve this problem, Apple is working on glasses that will block others from viewing content on the iPhone’s screen. The tech giant is working on Privacy Eyewear that will show on-screen content on your iPhone only when you wear it. Due to this people sitting next to you will not be able to see the content on your screen.
Information revealed through patent filed by Apple
This has been revealed from the application filed by Apple in the US Patent and Trademark Office. According to the patent, the smartphone will get a standard graphical output on the glasses. With this, whatever activity you do on the smartphone, will be visible only through the glasses. In this, if users want, they can also blur the screen with the calibration graphics option.
Apple’s patent terms this feature as “Privacy Eyewear” and defines the same as a system that can display “vision-corrected graphical outputs and standard graphical outputs on an electronic device.”
Benefits of privacy glasses
- These will protect the content of the screen from everyone.
- This will give users more freedom to consume their favourite multimedia or chat privately.
- This will bolster the payment protection ecosystem.
Other Apple projects
Apple is also working on the Face ID profile for the user. Apart from this, a feature is also being worked on that will help other users to identify the difference between their hairstyle, moustache, beard, sunglasses and reading glasses etc. Apple can integrate both patents.
Things that were first introduced by Apple
- Fingerprint Scanner in Smartphone
The iPhone 5s was launched in 2013 was the first smartphone ( not the first phone) in the world in which the fingerprint scanner feature was brought.
- Multi-touch feature
Multitouch technology was introduced in 2007. Whenever you bring the fingers together in a pinching movement to zoom out a photo, it is called the Multitouch feature. It was first introduced by Apple in the iPhone.
- Screen protection
Despite its thin display apple gave strength to its smartphones. Apple started the trend of using Gorilla Glass.
- USB port
With the advent of USB on the iMac, the number of computers supporting USB ports began to grow throughout the market.
- Trackpad
Every laptop these days have trackpads. Trackpad was introduced by Apple in May of 1994 with its series of PowerBook 500 notebooks.
Also read: Artificial Intelligence: Technological Boon Or Ethical Bane