Apple is serious about strapping a camera to your wrist

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applewatch
The camera looks like its part of the loop band.
Photo: USPTO

It seems inevitable that a camera will eventually find its way onto the Apple Watch, the only question is ‘how’? The USPTO awarded a new patent this week that reveals one pretty novel idea Apple has come up with that would allow the Apple Watch camera to be reversible.

It doesn’t look very sleek, but it could be pretty useful:

applewatchband
A camera on the band could unlock a bunch of possibilities.
Photo: Apple/USPTO

Samsung and a few other companies have already tried putting cameras on their smartwatches. One of the big problems though is you have to twist your weird in an awkward position to take a photo. Holding that position for video calls is even more of a pain.

Apple’s solution could solve the wrist-wringing problem. By placing a camera on a band, it could also have a front-facing and rear-facing camera, making 360-degree photos and video possible.

It looks like the camera isn’t on the band that snugs your wrist, but is a separate band that can be extended. This would allow you to bend and twist it to get a perfect angle. Multiple methods could be used to capture photos, such as pinching the band or voice control.

The patent (#10,331,083) was filed back in 2016 but wasn’t granted until today. Just because Apple patented an idea doesn’t mean it will actually make it into production though.

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