Apple Patent Reveals Possible 7th Gen iPod Nano, With Environmental Sensors

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A patent filed over at the U.S. Patent Office has revealed Apple’s latest design innovation, which will hopefully see the light of production. The patent features images of what looks like the next, or 7th generation of the iPod Nano, with some new functionalities that will turn that minute wonder into something more versatile.

From what the patent says, the iPod Nano 7 will have a camera onboard, as well as other new sensors, such as a motion sensor, a microphone, and a temperature gauge. All this for added “functionality.”

How these would be useful on a tiny media player is a little questionable, but the combination might just yield some sort of new interface that combines them all in interesting ways. For now, a screensaver that adapts to the environment – such as orientation, temperature, sound – to deliver a live/active "Chameleon-like screensaver" experience, is an example application of the patent.

Patently Apple reports on an interesting new patent application from Apple describing the use of environmental sensors to generate screen saver content for mobile devices such as the iPod nano. As an example, the device could sense such environmental characteristics as motion, sound, temperature, or even camera input, using that information to provide the users with screen saver content relevant to the setting.

As one example of the technology in practice, Apple describes a screen saver displaying raindrops falling down the screen. By employing the environmental sensing, the device could automatically determine which way is down regardless of the device's orientation, allowing the screen saver to always display the raindrops falling downward.

Apple's figures for the patent application show a device that appears nearly identical to the current iPod nano, a square device with a touch screen displaying up to four icons on a home screen. With the text and images included in the patent application also addressing the possibility of using images taken by an onboard camera to inform screen saver activity, it offers additional evidence that Apple is considering adding a camera to the diminutive iPod nano.

Source: thinkdigit.com here here.