Apple wins patent on infra-red technology to stop fans filming gigs

Remember that last weekend’s music concert in the University grounds when you used your iPhone to record your favorite band’s live performance. Well, it could be your last recording with the phone.

Pitchfork reports that Apple has won approval from the US Patent and Trademark Office for technology that could be used to prevent fans filming or taking photos of gigs on their iPhones.

The patent, headed “Systems and methods for receiving infrared data with a camera designed to detect images based on visible light”, outlines how infrared light could be used to prevent filming: “For example, an infrared emitter can be located in areas where picture or video capture is prohibited, and the emitter can generate infrared signals with encoded data that includes commands to disable the recording functions of devices. An electronic device can then receive the infrared signals, decode the data and temporarily disable the device’s recording function based on the command.”

The connection with music is that one of Apple’s “perspective view of an illustrative system for communicating infrared data in accordance with one embodiment of the invention” depicts a band on a stage, and an iPhone screen with the words “recording disabled”, suggesting that this – along with preventing filming in cinemas – is one of Apple’s suggested usages for the technology.

Filming of concerts infuriates not just musicians, many of whom ask their fans to put their devices away at concerts but also a problem for artists who want to play unreleased songs live, but have to deal with the prospect of those songs popping up on YouTube long before the official release.

In recent months, too, artists have become increasingly vociferous about poor royalty payments from unauthorised YouTube uploads. While technology to stop fans filming concerts would only be a drop in the ocean in this regard, it would end one tranche of the unauthorised uploads that appear on the video site.