Apple To Block iPhones Filming Live Events Using Infra-red Sensors Installed At Events.

[KittyWampus]

Using your iPhone at a corporate event will not be possible because infra-red sensors installed at the venue will tell phone to shut down camera application.

IMO, once Apple starts this, ALL smart phones will have to follow suit.


The days of filming a live concert or sporting event on your iPhone may soon be a distant memory.
Apple is developing software that will sense when a smartphone user is trying to record a live event, and then switch off the device's camera.
Anybody holding up their iPhone will find it triggers infra-red sensors installed at the venue.

On the way out? Apple is developing software that will sense when an iPhone user is recording a live event, and then switch off the device's camera
These sensors would then automatically instruct the iPhone to shut down its camera function, preventing an footage from being recorded.
Only the iPhone's camera would be temporarily disabled; other features, such as texting and making calls, would still work.


Apple filed a patent application 18 months ago in Calfornia. It has just come to light after being obtained by The Times. Such a development would be welcomed with open arms by many concertgoers, fed up with their view being blocked by a sea of glowing mobile phone screens.

snip
Assisting record companies in this manner is likely to help Apple secure more favourable terms with labels when negotiating deals to place music for sale on its iTunes website.
It could also potentially provide Apple with another source of revenue by charging people to film live events.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2004233/Apple-files-patent-block-iPhone-users-filming-live-events-smartphone.html#ixzz1QCmAe5FA

[hobbit709]

1. More reason to NOT buy an iPOS.

[KittyWampus]

2. Once they do this, probably all manufacturers will have to follow suit. #1. Lucrative contracts

with event organizers. #2. Threat of lawsuits from event organizers for enabling theft of copyrighted materials.

[hobbit709]

4. i would use it NOT being there as a selling point.

Like Blackberry with their Flash ad.

[KittyWampus]

8. and Blackberry might be subject to a lawsuit for enabling copyright infringement.

[hobbit709]

15. Then the manufacturer of EVERY possible recording device should be.

Cameras, video, audio and let's not forget CD and DVD burners.

[KittyWampus]

17. Exactly! I'm not happy about this. Just looking at it objectively. IMO, the possibility

is great they'd try to get this built into every possible device.

Heck, they sue some woman for millions for downloading some music. Corporate bullies with deep pockets.

[LoZoccolo]

5. Maybe in their stock configuration, but at least with Android

you have access to their source code; someone can always make a version of Android's OS that doesn't do this at the software level, or at least allows you to download a camera app which doesn't comply. If it's built into the camera that would be more difficult to circumvent.

[nebenaube]

26. My droid's camera refused to work as soon

as Rush (The Band) came on stage last year at the Minneapolis State Fair Grounds.

[meegbear]

12. Why will they "have to follow suit"?

"Your Driod's OK, but MINE can shut the camera down with infrared lighting."
"Dude, your phone totally fuckin' RAWKS! I gotta get one!1!"

[Xithras]

34. On the Android, EVERYTHING is an app.

Your keyboard is an app. Your camera controller is an app. Your desktop manager is an app. EVERYTHING is an app, and very little is integrates into the underlying operating system. That makes Android infinitely more customizable than iOS, where most of these features are core to the operating system.

These apps can also be swapped out. My camera software has already been swapped out for a different app that offers better features. Even if the handset makers crippled their phone camera apps, the phone owners would simply need to swap the apps for third party apps that didn't have that limitation.

The only way around this would be a hardware mod by the cellphone makers, and that seems unlikely.

[still_one]

6. You don't think Android will do it also? /nt

[backscatter712]

41. Androids are more easily hacked. n/t

[Downtown Hound]

3. Six years ago I had a subscription to MacAddict magazine

an ipod, a powerbook, an imac, and every bit of Apple software there was. Today I refuse to buy anything Apple. They have gone the way of Microsoft times ten.

Linux and open source is where it's at baby.

[izquierdista]

7. Easy workaround?

It's software, isn't it? I give it 3 weeks until some hacker comes up with a piece of code to disable the disabler.

[KittyWampus]

9. I'm not that savvy, but wouldn't something like infra-red sensors and receivers be hardware?

Please don't get mad at me, I"m just asking. Truly don't know.

[izquierdista]

13. Even easier then

The article said it was a software routine, so I'm assuming the workaround is software. If it does have an IR sensor, it could be defeated by any number of IR filter materials.

[Downtown Hound]

18. The infrared sensors are "installed at the venue"

not on your phone. That means they put up sensors in the auditorium that detect IR signals. You can tweak your phone all you want, but unless you can make it invisible to IR sensors it won't matter.

[backscatter712]

42. That's not quite how it works.

http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2011/06/apple-working-on-a-sophisticated-infrared-system-for-ios-cameras.html

Essentially, the venue would install infrared blinkers around the concert stage, which work just like the remote control for your TV. Your iPhone would have an infrared receiver built right into the camera, which would be receiving the blink-codes as you're trying to take a picture, and if it detects the blink-codes, it would disable your camera.

It gives big corporations, repressive Middle-Eastern dictatorships and police departments with a penchant for brutality a remote control over YOUR phone.

Not the technology I would be promoting...

[izquierdista]

45. Blink codes

Considering how well the TV remote works on the first try, I can see people getting half, maybe 3/4 of a concert before their phone shuts off.

[Downtown Hound]

14. Unless the infrared sensor is computer controlled and networked

into a network then there's no way to disable it through code writing or hacking. You might be able to disable it through some other means, but not through a code workaround.

[Xithras]

39. Actually, it just took me two minutes to disable ANY filter of this kind on ANY phone.

Go buy a small sheet of IR blocking film from your local hardware store. They're commonly used on household windows to reduce solar heating, and a small roll will cost you about $20 at Home Despot. They block infrared light while allowing visible light to pass through unimpeded.

Cut off a small piece of this film, stick it over your camera lens, and you're golden. Those IR blasters can send any signal they want and your camera will never see them.

[onehandle]

10. Freakouts like this based on companies' patent 'sketches' are ridiculous.

Apple files tens of thousands of these sketches every year. When someone there thinks of something, they patent it. All big tech companies do this. Very few of them ever come to see the light of day.

I've done some patent drawings while freelancing for an investment banker. Most of the tech 'ideas' made me roll my eyes.



I just drew a giant clown eating buildings in Manhattan. Alert the media.

[KittyWampus]

11. LOL! Thanks for the input. That said, this could be big bucks for Apple and Smartphones >

corporate event organizers would LOVE it dearly and pay "kickbacks" for sharing content with smartphones that use the tech.

AND I can also vaguely imagine a lawsuit against smart-phones that do not adopt this, for enabling the theft of copryright material.

[onehandle]

16. Please tell me how they monetize this 'function?' They would lose just for the bad publicity.

There is no logical reason for this to actually happen.

Additionally, I guarantee you that their competitors have similar 'ideas.'

[KittyWampus]

20. Access to recordings to be sold on the smart phone?

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Javaman]

23. Personally, I welcome our Manhattan eating clown overlords...

wait, what? you were kidding? damn.

[alfredo]

36. True. They want to hold the patent on technology

to control the technology, not always to use it.

[slampoet]

19. I Hear Lybia and Syria are very interested in this technology.

[Bluenorthwest]

21. They need to do something to stop it. Photography of stage

events has always been forbidden, as it should be. Aside from the Union issues for performers, the overriding concern is safety. Reflective things being held up, red dots, it is different from the stage than in the house. Performers often use bits of reflective tape on the stage as marks, like running lights. Any other source of light or reflection is a danger. Few think of this when holding up their toys to shoot. Smaller the venue or closer the camera the greater the distraction for those on stage.
But what do Unions and worker safety matter when someone feels the 'right' to film a live show, right? What are those Unions thinking?

[ret5hd]

24. My god!!! I didn't think of that. No wonder Jerry Garcia died on stage!

Oh, wait...

[Bluenorthwest]

27. Is Jerry the only person on a stage? Jerry's mark was a large

carpet, and he rarely left it. Jerry stood in place and played. His job a bit different from that of a dancer, don't you agree? The Dead played huge halls, most theaters hold a few hundred. Jerry was, however, wonderful as Gissel. We can all agree on that....

[MilesColtrane]

25. If you just had to bootleg that first run movie with your iphone, you could...

just cover up its infrared sensor with a little piece of tape and some nail polish.

:shrug:

[backscatter712]

43. According to the patent, the IR sensor will be right on the CCD with the camera.

So blocking it out would be blocking out the camera too.

Though you might be able to use an IR filter that's transparent to visible light...

[GodlessBiker]

28. That's why I have a Flip.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

29. Next they'll install 'em on police cars.

[IDemo]

31. And make the 'kill' function mandatory on all phones and cameras n/t

[backscatter712]

40. Exactly. Also great for repressive Middle-Eastern dictatorships!

What this does is gives the state and corporations a remote control for your phone.

[Stevenmarc]

30. Good, if I have to see one more crappy blurred concert photo on Facebook

It will be one more to many.

I love iPhoneograpy but I have yet to see one concert shot that was worth the shooter taking their phone out if their pocket.

[Vinnie From Indy]

32. This will never work

I am sure some techno-geek will have a solution within hours of the new technology being rolled out.

[GOTV]

33. They don't give many details but it's hard to see how they could do this ...

... in a way that isn't easily defeatable.

Somehow, something has to communicate to the phone to tell it to disable the camera.

An IR signal? Cover the IR receptor with a postit note

The IR receptor is within the camera lens? Cover the lens with an IR-opaque filter.

Send a signal to the phone over the cell signal or local wifi signal? Put the phone in airplane mode (disables the radio).

[Donnachaidh]

35. Steve Jobs evidently has control issues

bwahahahahahahahahahaha.....

Gives the toys out with thehigh priced purchases but you can't use them on anything that might make him money or make him look bad :rofl:

[FormerDittoHead]

37. ...or put an infrared cut-off filter over the lens?

http://www.edmundoptics.com/onlinecatalog/displayproduct.cfm?productid=1328

My personal problem is that I can see these infrared "sensors" everywhere, so the CCTV cameras will point OUT from the corporate owned building recording your every move, but McJobs will prevent you from filming the building in return.

[backscatter712]

38. Not infrared sensors, but infrared blinkers.

Works the same as the remote for your TV. The concert people install the blinkies around the stage, and in this scheme, your iPhone would be programmed to turn off its camera and not let you take videos or pics if it detects this remote control signal.

Essentially, it gives concert venues a remote control for YOUR phone.

Oh, and this technology is also good for police forces having problems with brutality incidents showing up on Youtube, as well as totalitarian Middle-Eastern dictatorships looking to keep repression off the Internet...

Call me one that is completely unenthused about this technology.

[NYC Liberal]

44. Apple - and every other company - files LOTS of patents.

The vast majority of them never make it into a shipping product, or the technology gets used for something entirely different from what it was intended for.