Suppose you could change the channel on your TV by moving a sofa cushion? Or adjust the volume with a plate of nachos? That’s the simple but somewhat ridiculous idea behind a patent Apple applied for.
While silly, it would mean we’d never need to worry about losing the TV remote.
Apple investigates enabling any object to function as a TV remote
At one point or another, we’ve all lost the TV remote. It’s usually buried in the sofa cushions or maybe under the couch, but sometimes it turns up in a child’s bedroom, or possibly in the yard covered in mud.
These days, you can make your iPhone or Apple Watch function as a remote, but Apple’s patent filing “Devices And Methods For Controlling Electronic Devices Or Systems With Physical Objects” explores a radical alternative. It would enable the user to specify that moving any object in the immediate area changes something on the TV.
As the previous example noted, the user could tell their TV that raising a sofa cushion changed the channel. Or it could be whatever they have handy.
The patent says, in the stilted language of such filings, “the first electronic device detects a change in a physical environment of the first electronic device due to movement of one or more physical objects in the physical environment indicative of a user input.”
Screenshot: Apple
A system for specifying which objects perform what operations is also sketched out in the filing.
Naturally, this would require an Apple TV with a user-facing scanner able to recognize objects and register movements, which doesn’t currently exist. But the system might also be used when watching movies or TV shows on the upcoming Apple Vision Pro AR headset.
Engineers with the Mac-maker have recently been investigating the possibilities of tracking real-world movements. They proposed a HomePod that accepts spoken commends only when the user is looking at it.
Apple patents are usually moonshots
A patent application isn’t a guarantee that Apple intends to turn an idea into a future product. The company regularly patents concepts and designs that never make it into the real world. And Apple receives a lot of patents.
Also, there are privacy concerns. The tech in this proposed patent would require equipping an Apple TV with a camera that constantly watches the user. Many people are already worried that phones and other devices are eavesdropping on them — this device would require them to always be watched.
