Apple wants to stop you filming concerts on your phone, and it has a plan to stop you

Apple may be working on a solution to the annoying sea of mobile phones at gigs. For your average person, most gigs you’ll attend will come with a sea of mobile phones held in the air, with people trying to record footage to upload onto social media to legitimise their presence at an event.

Not only is this an annoying phenomenon, it’s also of little benefit to anyone else as many phone’s cameras and microphones can’t handle the low-light, high-volume environment. Absolutely no-one wants to see a blurry, noisy clip of that One Direction gig you went to last night.

Apple thinks it has a solution to the problem and, despite being filed in 2011, a patent for blocking camera functions in certain situations has just surfaced online. The patent describes a system whereby an iPhone could understand signals sent from on-stage infrared emitters via its camera. By using this technology, the iPhone’s camera could be disabled for photo and video purposes when it detects that it’s pointing towards the stage or performance area.

It’d be interesting to know if Apple’s patent came about due to pressures from those within the entertainment industry wishing to curb mobile-phone use at events, or if it was from general consumer grumbling on the matter. Either way, Apple is yet to bring this feature to market.

The patent also talks of other uses for the technology, such as providing augmented-reality options when holding a camera up in front of objects. One example depicted in the patent drawings is a photo of a jug, with the iPhone camera displaying additional information around the jug – such as its full title and a description of it, as well as an audio or video description of it.

Apple’s tech could, perhaps, end up in the iPhone 7 – especially as rumours suggest it has a redesigned camera module – but it’s unlikely Apple would include such a feature as it wouldn’t wish to alienate fans. It’s more than likely Apple has just come up with the process and is sitting on the patent to prevent others from using such a method themselves.