A lot of people thought Apple missed a trick when it failed to snap up Tony Fadell’s smart thermostat and smoke detector company Nest.
However, Apple may wind up having the last laugh, since a newly-granted patent describes how Apple hardware — including iPhones, iPads and other devices — could one day include sensors which allow them to function as smoke detectors in their own right.
Neat, huh?
The “Wireless device networks with smoke detection capabilities” patent was originally filed in May 2013. In one version of the patent, Apple explains how an installed sensor array positioned near a device’s speaker port or other opening could be used to sense smoke.
When it did so, the device could do anything from simply alert users, activate fire suppression systems, or even transmit information — including a house address and building layout — to local fire services.
A portable smoke alarm has one major advantage over the fixed solutions currently used in most houses. Because we carry around our iPhones wherever we go, it can be safely assumed that you’d have your smoke detector with you when it was most needed. It could also travel with you wherever you go, meaning that you’d be just as protected while staying in a hotel or at a friend’s house as you would be in your own home.
With Apple making more and more inroads into home automation thanks to HomeKit, today’s patent definitely makes sense for the company. Let’s just hope that, unlike many Apple patents, it does end up becoming a product and not just a bright idea patented to stop others copying it.
Source: USPTO
Via: Apple Insider
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
5 responses to “Your next iPhone could double as a smoke detector”
Unless you strap your iPhone (or iDevice) to the ceiling it’s likely to be too late if the smoke has reached table height were most people leave their equipment.
A carbon monoxide detector would also be a great addition.
Can it have a vape sensor too – so it can warn people when they are looking douchy?
So do we know what makes the sensor tick? Is it based on a small radioactive isotope like normal smoke detectors? While I’m not some anti-nuclear fear monger (I’m actually a nuclear engineer), I still would question the advisability of placing radioactive isotope-based sensors in millions of phones. We already have a disposal issue with existing home detectors. So I’m assuming it relies on some other form of detection?
What if I recently had a cigarette?