While gadget patents don’t guarantee anything, they can provide a glimpse into areas a company is exploring. Earlier this week, Apple was granted a patent (US-11571048-B1) for an Apple Watch strap release mechanism that may be used with a built-in camera. That’s a good idea in itself, but it’s also the third camera-related Apple Watch patent we’ve seen in recent years. The patent application was originally filed in 2019, so Apple engineers have clearly had wearable cameras on their minds for a while.
Spotted for the first time by Patent Apple, the abstract and description portion of the patent describe a belt with two segments and a “nest” portion. The concept was to create a quick and ergonomic way to remove the watch from the strap.
That, in turn, could open up new ways to use the Apple Watch that aren’t limited to the wrist, such as, as mentioned in the claims section, taking photos with a built-in camera. Figure 3 in the patent illustrates a person holding a strapless watch to take a picture. Figure 4 then shows a cross-section of an Apple Watch with a downward-facing built-in camera and the field of view. So you would essentially pull out the watch, hold up the camera part and take a picture.
If Patent Apple notes, this isn’t even the first time Apple has filed camera-related patents for the Apple Watch. Apple was granted another patent titled last year simply “Look with a camera.” It described a scenario where a camera was placed in the digital crown, and one of the diagrams is essentially identical to Figure 3 above. In 2019, Apple won a patent for a swivel camera built into the end of a strap. Notably, there’s already a third-party Apple Watch accessory called the Wristcam that works the same way.
It was clear that this was a concept that someone at Apple had put a lot of thought into. And there are legitimate reasons why a customer would want a smartwatch camera. One of the great benefits of the Apple Watch is that it allows iPhone users to spend less time on their phone — and possibly even leave it behind — when running errands, going for a walk, or exercising. But who hasn’t been out and seen something they wanted to take a picture of to send to friends and family? Without your phone, you wouldn’t have any evidence. And, as they say, pictures or it did not happen.
The most awkward use case would be to take a photo or film a recording discreetly. That – plus technology limitations like size and battery – is perhaps why we haven’t seen many companies explore this idea further. As evidenced by the original Google Glass, the idea that someone you may be secretly recording leaves many uneasy. (Although it was rumored that Meta was working on a smartwatch with not one but two cameras before the idea was reportedly dropped.)
In any case, it is a repetition of those patents are not warranty on anything. Big Tech often proactively files patents for ideas, just in case. It could very well be that Apple thought long and hard about cameras and decided against them, or that there’s a chance that a future Apple Watch will have a built-in camera. Anyway, it’s worth noting that portable cameras Are something tech companies are considering – and what that could mean for smartwatches in the future.
