Apple has applied for a patent for a high-tech interchangeable back cover for a smartphone, with an iPhone rear screen and additional cameras among the potential applications listed by the company.
The app also appears to outline a way to provide case-like protection without the bulk of a conventional iPhone case…
What Apple is describing isn’t a MagSafe-life attachment to the phone’s back cover, but a full back replacement that would replace everything but the camera module.
As always, the patent application is written in extremely dense language. Apple proposes a spring-clip system for attaching removable back covers – including electrical connections – and lists some of the things that can be included in “supplemental” (ie, optional) back covers.
Additional housing components may also provide additional functionality, such as additional batteries, physiological sensors and/or health monitoring devices, cameras, auxiliary displays, and the like.
Additional camera
The camera module will remain in place, replacement covers will have a cutout or window to accommodate this.
The removable back cover assembly may include a camera window configured to cover a rear view camera of the mobile phone in the first assembly configuration.
However, Apple says a possible accessory case could include additional cameras.
In another example, the additional subsystem may be a complementary camera, which may include a lens, an image sensor, and associated electronics to facilitate image capture.
Glucose monitor
Among the health sensors that could be offered, Apple suggests a blood glucose monitor.
As another example, the supplemental subsystem may be a blood sugar testing device and may include a mechanism for obtaining blood samples (eg, on paper test strips) and analysis components and related circuitry to determine a blood glucose level based on the test strip. .
Case protection
Apple also suggests that this approach can be used instead of a separate iPhone case. In this case, the back cover will extend further and include additional sides to provide protection for the device.
An additional housing component for a mobile phone may include a removable back cover assembly of the rear wall of a mobile phone, thereby defining an outer rear surface of the mobile phone instead of the rear cover assembly of the mobile phone. mobile phone housing, a protective sidewall extending from the rear wall and configured to cover at least a portion of a peripheral wall of a mobile phone housing.
This would presumably provide case-like protection while maintaining the phone’s slim form factor – perhaps aimed at the ultra-slim iPhone reportedly coming in 2025.
9to5Mac’s Take
That’s a pretty radical idea by Apple’s standards, for a company that generally takes the approach of thinking it knows best what its customers want and for years trying to dissuade them from nor the existing back cover.
But the company’s newfound support for Right to Repair probably makes this less weird than it once would have been, and there could certainly be potential money in the idea. Given how many people now use their iPhone as their primary or only camera, the idea of adding additional cameras with different focal lengths or features can be popular.
If I had to put money on it, I’d say it’s never going to happen – but it sure is fun to think about!
What options would you like to see Apple offer with this kind of approach? Tell us in the comments.
Via Patently Apple. Samsung S22 Ultra photo by Evgeny Opanasenko on Unsplash.
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