Of course I’ve taken photos and videos at concerts, but I’m not the kind to have my phone raised up for the entire performance. I’ll take my handful of photos, maybe snag a video if I can, and then the phone goes back in the pocket for the rest for the show. Why would I want to watch the show through my screen when I see it with my own two eyes right in front of me?
But… you have “that” friend with a Facebook feed full of concert videos that are ten seconds long and the most crap-tastic quality. And that friend is the same person you get stuck behind at a concert and you have to look around their phone the entire show. Don’t you just hate that?
Apple is trying to put a stop to that, and in a big way.
Apparently this news has been on headlines for the last week now, but I just heard about it over the weekend.
According to, 9 to 5 Mac, the patent in order to stop concert photos, the camera detects an infrared signal and interprets the data. One signal could be used to disable both still photography and video recording. What happens is, an infrared emitter is located near an object and generates infrared signals with encoded data that includes information about that object. An electronic device can then receive the infrared signals, decode the data and display the information about the object to the user.
Basically, when you’re trying to record or take pictures during a show, it won’t let you.
There’s a lot of science involved, and I suck at Science, so I found an article on 9 to 5 Mac that explains it and draws it out for you here.