Apple patents auto-healing tech which will allow iPhone 7 heal itself during night
Apple has been awarded patent technology for the iPhone that detects when you’re not using it and automatically cleans or fixes itself.
The patent filed with the US Patent and Trademark office back in July 2014, the Automated Maintenance of an Electronic Device patent describes a number of different ways that an iPhone could keep itself running.
This means that the future versions of the iPhone will be able to self-heal, ‘performing maintenance, repair and recalibration functions’ while you sleep, including fixing dead pixels on the screen.
‘Exposure to environmental elements may take its toll on portable devices over time which necessitates increased maintenance, recalibration and repair services to the portable electronic devices,’ according to the patent.
‘This increase in service requirements could become an annoyance to a user and result in significant user dissatisfaction.’
‘These maintenance and repair services may be time consuming to perform and result in unavailability of certain services and user down time which may be unacceptable to many users who rely on these devices during, and as part of, their daily routines and activities.’
According to the information included in the patent indicates that the iPhone could automatically repair itself in case water or any other liquid reaches the speaker.
Apple seems to have found a way that let’s the device to automatically remove the liquid by generating a special sound in the speaker. This process would obviously be quite invasive during the night, but the patent says that the phone’s sensors could scan the surroundings and find out when the owner is in a loud environment to generate this sound.
“The maintenance services may be performed if the device determines that it is not being used such as when the user is sleeping or is engaged in other activities which would make the user unaware that such maintenance or remedial operations are being performed,” the patent reads.
The patent also explains how an iPhone could fix issues with their screens, such as dead pixels. Apple says this can be fixed by cycling through a screen diagnostic schedule that lights up the screen in different ways.
It can take several hours to do this – but the iPhone could wait until its owner is asleep, and automatically do it then.
It can also run other diagnostics while you are asleep, like testing the camera, as well as checking on the handset’s components to make sure your phone is able to connect to the internet properly, make calls and send texts.
There’s no guarantee that the technology described will make it into the iPhone 7, but given the fact that Apple applied for the patent in 2014, the company has the necessary technology and know-how to introduce it in the next model.
Ref: Techworm
