Microsoft has applied for a patent for the making of pictures with a smartphone without being unlocked need to be. Microsoft brought this feature first for Windows Phone, but Apple copied the idea in iOS 5.
The patent application describes a technique whereby a user with a smartphone or tablet is protected with a code, his device do not need to unlock it to take a picture. Therefore, the user can more quickly take a photo to ‘the moment’, like Microsoft describes.
Microsoft used that feature since late 2010, Windows Phone. Devices with Windows Phone have an option that allows at any time the camera may be long pressed, then the camera software starts and a photo can be made. The device need not be unlocked to be. The screen doesn’t even need to. To make that possible, is a camera button required on every Windows Phone device.
The idea is for everyone to take pictures without having access to personal data stored on the device. If the device is not unlocked, only the captured pictures can be viewed, and not the other photos on the device. Also, photos can only be viewed and cannot be deleted or sent.
Apple has the idea taken in iOS 5. It is with a double click of the Home button next to the Slide to Unlock picture of an icon displayed on the camera. Click leads the user to the camera software. The only difference is that in iOS, the pictures have to be deleted.
Microsoft wants the patent presumably use Apple to compel license fees to pay for the idea. It is unclear whether that will succeed; the U.S. Patent Office has not yet decided on the Thursday published patent application.
