Apple Receives Apple Watch Patent with Built-In Camera

Inno Flores, Tech Times 13 February 2023, 01:02 am

Apple has been granted three patents regarding an Apple Watch that comes with a camera in the last few years. But this time, the company received an Apple Watch patent with an intriguing new camera system.

(Photo : BRITTANY HOSEA-SMALL/AFP via Getty Images)
One of the new Apple Watch 8 series is displayed during a launch event for new products at Apple Park in Cupertino, California, on September 7, 2022. - Apple unveiled several new products including a new iPhone 14 and 14 Pro, three Apple watches, and new AirPod Pros during the event.

Apple Watch with Camera

Earlier this month, the United States Patent and Trademark Office gave Apple a patent titled "Watch Having A Release Mechanism (US-11571048-B1) and it details a method that allows users to have access to a camera located at the bottom of the Apple Watch.

Phone Arena reported that this patent envisions a watch band with a quick-release feature that would make the device easily disconnected from the band to take pictures and videos using the rear-facing camera.

Users would simply pop out the watch, hold the camera potion, and snap a picture to utilize the new camera once it is launched. After capturing a moment, they could easily put back the watch in the base of the band as it easily locks in.

New Attachment Mechanism

While Apple was granted by the authorities of three Apple Watch with built-in cameras for the last few years, this variant is much different from the previous ones as it noted that the watch would attach to the nest of the band using a releasable attachment through a latch or magnets.

Through this feature, it would allow the users to remove the watch from the nest portion without removing the entire watch band from the wrist. This attachment mechanism could permit "quick or ergonomic release" of the device.

However, BGR reported that providing a camera on the Apple Watch could raise some potential problems in the future like privacy matters and more. But there are solutions that Apple recently released on its Apple Watch Ultra.

Previous Patents

According to Channel News, this is not the first time Apple filed an Apple Wtahc with camera-related patents. In June 2019, Apple received a US-10331083-B1 patent that covered a flexible optical sensor, placed at the end of an Apple Watch band. This would flex to help point the optical sensor of a certain photo or video.

Just last year, Apple was granted another patent titled "Watch having a camera", with a camera placed within the digital crown. Aside from this, it also comes with diagrams that were similar to those in the recently received patents.

Also Read: New Apple Patent Application Shows Underwater iPhone Usage: Force Touch-Like System Implementation

Meanwhile, a third-party accessory called Wristcam is currently available in the market. This accessory features two cameras and replaces the band on the users' Apple Watches Series 3 through Series 8, SE models, and the Ultra variant.

In other devices, Samsung released Gear 2 with a 1.9 Megapixel camera that did not impress both the owners and tech connoisseurs. Apart from this, Samsung has not still included a camera with any of its subsequent watches.