“On May 30, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals Apple’s gaze detection technology,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple.
“It should be noted that Apple’s current patent is a divisional patent which means that Apple is breaking this aspect of their 2008 parent patent out as an individual patent,” Purcher reports. “Technically, Apple had this technology in a patent prior to any other competitor, including Samsung which actually implemented it first in their Galaxy S4 smartphone earlier this year.”
Purcher reports, “Apple also added gaze technologies to a January patent in context to an HDTV related patent and the likes of Sony and BlackBerry are working on similar features. Today, when you put your iPhone to your face the display is turned off. This is one of the technologies found in Apple’s gaze detection patent. In the future, gaze technology will be able to stop a video when you look away or stop your tunes from playing based on this gaze detection feature. At the end of the day, Apple’s gaze detection technology is really more about conserving power than it is about providing a flashy gimmick.”
Read more, and see Apple’s patent application illustrations and diagrams, in the full article here.