Apple patent envisions tracking people in real time
Apple patent envisions tracking people in real time
A newly granted patent would let you view friends, family
and even pets from your mobile device as they move through their day.
by Lance Whitney March 24, 2015 7:50 AM PDT
Apple's current Find My Friends feature could one day
expand into more of a Track My Friends feature.
Granted to Apple on Tuesday by the US Patent and
Trademark Office, a patent called "Sharing location information among
devices" describes a process that would let you view a visual
representation of the path taken by another person using a mobile device as a
way of following that person's entire journey.
For example, someone is going for a hike or a trip and
wants you to stay informed of his or her whereabouts. That person would enable
a feature on a mobile device to allow you to see and track in real time the
path being taken on your own mobile device or computer. On the flip side, you
could also share your route so the two of you can stay abreast of each other's
ongoing location.
Apple already offers a feature called Find My Friends,
which lets you find the specific location of another person via his or her
iPhone or iPad. But Find My Friends is geared more toward pointing you to a
specific spot, whereas Apple's patented invention allows for path tracking, or
following several points along a specific route.
As described in the patent, your respective devices could
also share mapping directions so that you and your friend would be able to
easily find each other via your mobile devices. Even further, your devices
could tap into a "mirroring" mode that would replicate the view seen
on each other's respective devices.
The system would rely on GPS for navigation purposes but
could enable communication between the devices via a cellular network, Wi-Fi or
Bluetooth. Assuming both you and your friend had a sufficient signal, cellular
would obviously be the most efficient technology as it would allow for the
greatest distance between the two of you.
Concerns over privacy and security always arise in any
technology such as the one described here. But as Apple points out, the feature
would need to be enabled by the person being tracked, so you wouldn't be able
to track people without their permission.
In the patent, Apple said the devices could be carried by
a human being, animal or robot. A small enough device placed on a pet could
help you keep track of your dog. And a device installed on a robot conjures up
a type of telepresence in which someone could follow and view the path of a
robotic device, perhaps one being sent into hazardous conditions.
As usual, even a patented invention doesn't necessarily
mean we'll ever see this capability in the real world. But since Apple already
offers a Find My Friends feature, a tracking concept doesn't seem particularly
farfetched.
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