Apple Glasses could chime when recording, but only for the wearer

In what addresses only a lesser problem of privacy when filming with Apple Glasses, a new patent details ways the wearer can be alerted that they are recording, or if bad actors try to interfere.

Meta Ray-Bans are either going to give all smart glasses a bad name, or introduce a massive societal change where we shrug at privacy. Apple clearly does not want to be associated with smart glasses that can film people without their knowledge, so a new patent shows it is working on a solution.

Or possibly just half a solution. "Secure Audio Indicators For Electronic Devices" is a newly revealed patent application that is concerned with using audio indicators during recordings. So it's about playing sounds rather than having, say, a tiny red dot that might be covered up.

"Because the information captured by the microphone(s) and/or camera can include private and/or personal information about the user and/or other people around the electronic device," says the patent application, "it may be desirable to be able to securely control and/or confirm the output of these audio indicators."

"In some devices, a visual indicator, such as an indicator light, is provided that can be activated when an input component is in use, to indicate (e.g., to the user of the device and/or to others around the device) that audio and/or video recording is in progress," it continues. "However, in some devices (e.g., compact devices with limited housing space), it may be impractical to provide an indicator light, and/or to provide an indicator light in a way that a user of the device (e.g., and/or others) can see the indicator light when activated."

This is all good and true, but your immediate thoughts must include that there is no way the glasses can keep chiming or it would drive everyone mad. It could also wreck the recording.

Equally, if the smart glasses just chime when recording starts, someone could switch it on before entering a room.

But after that start, this patent application concentrates on warning the wearer that they are recording. That sounds pointless, like Apple is over-engineering a solution to how people will forget they've begun filming.

It does have an accessibility benefit. "For example, an audio and/or haptic indicator may be more effective at providing an indication than an indicator light," says the patent application, "such as for sight-impaired people."

So if you're the wearer, you might get a sound or you might get a tap from haptic feedback to say that you've started recording.

Keeping the device secure

Apple is very concerned, though, with being sure that it is you that starts the recording and not anyone else managing to hijack control while you're wearing the glasses.

Apple suggests doing that first by having a speaker make the sound, then have a microphone listen for it. This "can help to securely ensure that the first audio indicator is, in fact, output by the speaker of a device," and it is not somehow being spoofed.

A great deal of the patent application is dedicated to this playing and recording of sounds, and embedding information to help secure privacy. "For example, an electronic device may be provided with the ability to generate an audio output" including pairing information "that prevents malware... running on the electronic device from generating a spoofed audio output with other encoded information."

So in theory, this would stop a bad actor from playing an audible sound like the one iPhones play when they stop video recording. It's possible that this is meant to stop such a bad actor even if they are the wearer.

What this means for privacy

It's curious that Apple is seemingly so focused on the risks of a third party taking control of the smart glasses. But since it is, the patent application is very thorough about how to prevent this.

As ever with a patent, the application goes out of its way to say that it applies to every conceivable form of device, rather than solely smart glasses. That's usually just patent-speak as the inventors attempt to make future lawsuits easier to win.

In this case, there are more specific references to how such capabilities might be of use with the Apple Watch. But it is clearly smart glasses that Apple is concerned with, along with the wearer.

The patent application is under no obligation to solve all privacy issues, and its existence is no evidence that this is all Apple is doing. But it is evidence that Apple is doing its usual thing of thinking very deeply about how its products can be used or misused.

This patent application is credited to three inventors, including David M. Tremblay. His previous work for Apple includes a patent on how to detect when a user has put on an Apple Watch.