Il bello e il brutto di depositare dei brevetti è che diventano, sì, protetti. Ma anche pubblici. E’ il caso della richiesta numero 20090175499 dello scorso 17 giugno, presentata da Apple al Patent & Trademark Office degli Stati Uniti. Intriganti questi punti, come sottolineato da Fierce Mobile Content:

[0008] In accordance with the invention, a portable electronic device and method of operation are provided in which the device can attempt to identify an object and obtain additional information about the identified object…

[0009] In some embodiments, in order to detect an object, the portable electronic device can automatically determine the current environment and… select a detection technology (e.g., a RFID reader, a camera, an IR image capture device)…

[0010] …Based on the selected mode, the portable electronic device can adjust parameters used for searching an identification database. For example, if the user selects to identify an object in a “MUSEUM” mode, the portable electronic device can search the identification database for objects that are commonly found in a museum… if the user is determined to be in Las Vegas and the portable electronic device is set to a “RESTAURANT” mode, the device can limit the search of the identification database to restaurants in Las Vegas.

Stai a vedere che l’anno prossimo Apple ti combina qualche altro scherzo niente male :)

apple, augmented reality, iphone, ubiquitous computing