Apple files application to patent 'gaze detection technology'

If Apple’s newest patent application with the US Patent & Trademark Office takes shape, it may soon introduce devices with gaze detection capabilities. “Electronic Devices With Gaze Detection Capabilities” is precisely what Apple is looking at with the newest filing that it made on May 30, 2013.

Electronic devices with such capabilities would be able to detect when a user is looking at it, and when he looks away. When the latter happens, the device may dim a display screen and perform other suitable actions. Say, the user is viewing a video on the device, and looks away the next minute. During such times, the device with gaze detection capabilities will pause the video, and resume playback only when it has detected that the user is looking at it again. We couldn’t help but notice the similarities between this scenario and the Smart Stay and Eye Scrolling technology on the Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone. 

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“Gaze detector circuitry may be powered down when sensor data indicates that gazed detection readings will not be reliable or are not needed,” the patent description reads further.

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Additionally, the patent application states that such an electronic device will use one or more gaze detection sensors, like a camera to determine whether a user’s gaze is directed towards the electronic device. Specifically, the device may use gaze detection sensors to determine if the user is looking at the display of the electronic device or not.

The inventors of this patent technology have been listed as Andrew Hodge and Michael Rosenblatt on the patent listing page.