Apple has quietly described, in a patent filing, a watch whose camera and flash would vanish beneath the glass until someone calls on them. The news arrived in December 2020, a season when the company was celebrating its newest health tools and a fresh fitness service, and it reveals a long-running habit of imagining what a wearable might become. Whether this hidden eye ever opens on a real wrist remains an open question, since many patents are dreams that never leave the drawing board.
Apple Patent Describes Apple Watch Camera and Flash Hidden Beneath the Display
The camera hardware will remain hidden until you turn it on.
Mark
So what exactly did Apple file?
Mimi
A patent with the USPTO describing a camera and flash hidden under the Apple Watch display. They only become visible when you use them.
Mark
How would that work physically?
Mimi
Through layers. An inner layer has the pixels, and an outer layer has light modulator cells that can go transparent or block light.
Mark
And the camera hides behind that?
Mimi
Yes, the patent describes an adjustable shutter that can veil the camera and the whole optical setup.
Luke
Before we get carried away, this is a patent, not a product. Apple files lots of them, and the report says this may not appear anytime soon.
Mark
Is there anything else in the filing?
Mimi
A two-stage display. One display handles fast-moving content, the other shows slow things like the time or text, and each can switch on or off automatically.
Luke
Worth noting the source gives no timeline, no device name, and no word from Apple. What we have is the patent's description and nothing about plans.
Mark
So what's the takeaway?
Mimi
It shows where Apple is experimenting. Whether it ships is something only future Apple Watch hardware will answer.
O Pulso
- A filed patent imagines a camera and flash concealed beneath the Apple Watch screen, appearing only when summoned.
- The design calls for stacked display layers that can turn transparent or go opaque, a tricky engineering puzzle.
- A second idea splits the display into two stages, one for fast motion and one for quiet clock faces and text.
- The filing is only a proposal, and Apple files many that never reach a store shelf, so the trajectory is uncertain.
Apple has quietly described, in a patent filing, a watch whose camera and flash would vanish beneath the glass until someone calls on them. The news arrived in December 2020, a season when the company was celebrating its newest health tools and a fresh fitness service, and it reveals a long-running habit of imagining what a wearable might become. Whether this hidden eye ever opens on a real wrist remains an open question, since many patents are dreams that never leave the drawing board.
Apple has filed a patent with the US Patent and Trademark Office describing an Apple Watch with a camera and flash tucked beneath its display. The hardware would stay hidden until the wearer switches it on. Wccftech reported the filing on December 15, 2020.
The timing gives the story some context. Apple had recently released the Series 6, with a new health feature, and had launched its Fitness+ workout service the day before the coverage. The patent hints that the company is still exploring more experimental directions for the wearable.
The central idea is concealment. The display would be built from several layers. An inner layer shows images, while an outer layer of light modulator cells can turn transparent or block light. Force and touch sensors would capture input, and blocks of cells could form a pass-through window for the camera, with an adjustable shutter veiling the optics. A two-stage design would split fast-moving content from slower imagery like the time or text.
The source is careful about what this is. It is only a patent, and many such filings never become products. The question to watch is whether any of this hardware appears in a future Apple Watch.
Apple has filed a patent with the US Patent and Trademark Office describing an Apple Watch that carries a camera and a flash beneath its display, hardware that would stay out of sight until the wearer switches it on. The filing was reported on December 15, 2020, by Wccftech.
The timing matters for context. Apple had released the Apple Watch Series 6 a few months earlier, adding another major health feature, and had announced its Fitness+ workout service alongside it. Fitness+ launched the day before the patent coverage, arriving with iOS 14.3. The patent suggests Apple is still exploring more experimental directions for the wearable.
The core idea is concealment. According to the filing, the camera and flash would remain hidden under the screen and appear only when in use. To make that possible, the patent describes a display built from multiple layers, each with its own job.
An inner layer would hold a pixel array for showing images. An outer layer would hold an array of light modulator cells, which can operate in either a transparent mode or a light-blocking mode. The patent also mentions force sensor and touch sensor circuitry, which could capture user input such as finger pressure or stylus input at a given spot on the display.
The filing goes on to describe how blocks of those cells could be arranged to form a pass-through window, using custom sensor circuitry. In another arrangement, images could be displayed through the light modulator layer by adjusting the cells. Through an adjustable shutter, the camera and its whole optical setup could be veiled.
The patent also covers a two-stage display. One display would handle fast-moving content, while the other would show slower imagery such as the time, a clock face, or text. Each could switch on or off automatically depending on what is being shown.
There is a large caveat, and the source states it plainly: this is only a patent. Apple files a great many of them, and the technology described will not necessarily appear in a product anytime soon. Wccftech advised readers to take the news with a pinch of salt. The thing to watch is whether any of this hardware shows up in a future Apple Watch model.
Citações Notáveis
This is a mere patent at the moment, and the technology may not see the light of day any time soon.— Wccftech
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