Can't find your motor? Apple patents solve car park conundrums
Cupertino to enable world+dog to find its lost Ladas
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Apple has filed a series of patents which will help people find their motors in a crowded car park and then open the doors without using a key.
The patents that emerged today are called "method for locating a vehicle" and "accessing a vehicle using portable devices".
The first sets out a system for anyone who wants to leave their motor in a "parking structure", or “car park” for anyone not fluent in Cupertinian.
This would allow a confused driver to discover the location of their car using a "portable computing device" which communicates with a network inside the carpark as well as a location system in the vehicle.
Using Bluetooth, a parked car would be able to transmit data about its location to wireless sensors built into the carpark, which could be embedded in gates, elevators or even in parking spaces themselves.
Cleverly, the sensors will be able to tell whether a car's engine is running using visual or audible clues, perhaps by listening in to see if an alarm is going off because the car door is open.
If the proposed iCarPark becomes a reality, it would mean an end to losing your motor during a visit to the shops.
The other patent allows drivers to open their car using their smartphone to replace the fobs currently used as car keys. Drivers will be able to grant one other device the right to access the car, as well as imposing limits on what times that device can start the engine, and even the speed the car can be driven at - perfect for the parents of petrolhead teenagers.
Apple has been looking to get involved in the car world for some time. The Register previously covered the release of an iBeetle, complete with all sorts of Apple bells and whistles, and nine automotive manufacturers have agreed to incorporate the Siri Eyes Free system, which allows drivers to use Siri without taking their eyes off the road.
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steal the phone, steal the car, rob the house
welcome to the new iCrime
Re: WTF?
That's what I thought too - had one on my Android phone for ages.
I prefer to use biological memory storage and stereo optical devices linked to a visual cortex to find my car. i.e. remember where you left the thing and look for it.
Another Way to Push Out Possible Customers
I had two thought reading this,
1) Are the customers for this sort of non device really suitable to drive a car or are they the sort of lame brains who drive to the end of a merge lane on a motor way and stop wondering which way to go? On second thoughts perhaps they use apple maps?
2) Please let me know which car make want to 'help' their customers with this so that I know which cars to avoid buying, - or getting too close to on the road.
It involves (new) computers, phones and wireless
Well, if the patents are granted, then all hope for the USPTO should be extinguished in one final blow. The criteria of "obvious to a person skilled in the field" seems to be a total loss for the USPTO.
I'm now waiting for a patent to be granted on "waving a hand by means of electronic communication using a wireless infrastructure". Hell, it involves computers and phones and whatever electronics, so it must be worthy.
A possible problem...
I currently have my bus pass on my phone and occasionally run into one problem. Like most smart phones out there, my battery won't really last two full days of normal use (my fiancee's won't even last one). If my battery dies, I have no bus ticket and must pay for a paper one. If I have no key or fob for my car, instead relying on my phone to find it and unlock it, exactly how stuffed am I if the battery fails? The battery life for even the worst key fob is likely measured in months, and of course metal keys (or paper bus tickets) handily never run out of battery at all.
