A new patent describes an Apple Watch with an on-board camera. Its location is quite unconventional.
If you are still waiting impatiently for the Cupertino company to launch a Apple Watch with an integrated camera, here is what you might be interested in. Indeed, a patent granted to Apple last week precisely describes a smartwatch with camera on the bottom surface of the device. While this might, at first glance, seem like the worst possible place to put such a component, since it’s pointing directly at your wrist, the patent describes a system that would make this practical in certain scenarios.
New patent describes an Apple Watch with an on-board camera
The trick lies in the bracelet. This would have two segments: the top – with the watch itself – would be easily detachable from the bottom. So if you want to take a photo with your Apple Watch, you can easily detach it from your wrist, point it at what you want to capture, take the photo, and reattach the back of the watch to the band.
It might even sound pretty funny until you remember that taking a picture with your smartphone is probably much more convenient in pretty much every scenario, except, maybe, when you don’t have your phone. with you.
Its location is quite unconventional
This isn’t Apple’s first patent describing a smartwatch with an onboard camera. Another, from 2022, offered a more conventional location for this module, just in the crown.
That being said, these two patents were filed in 2019. There is therefore a good chance that the Apple brand has decided not to pursue this idea.
Patently Applewhich tracks patents related to the Apple ecosystem on a daily basis, says that at least 39 other patents were granted to Apple in the past week, including a document describing next-gen haptic feedback that could be used to replace the physical buttons on apple-branded devices.
