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Apple patents new method for water detection

by Mike Schramm Feb 21st 2012 at 10:00AM

Apple has submitted a patent that describes a better method of detecting water in an electronic device. In other words, Apple has devised a way to know if your iPhone has been in a pool (for example) before you try to return it to an Apple Store as defective.

The patent describes a method of covering up an internal electronics sensor with a glob of water-soluble glue, which dissolves and reveals the sensor when exposed to water. The appearance of the sensor would tip off anyone examining the phone to water exposure. There are a number of different methods described in the patent, but they all follow that basic idea.

I question this research. Should Apple dedicate so much time and effort into uncovering customers' mistakes? Wouldn't it be better to spend that time making iPhones just more resistant to liquids?

Then again, that's easy for me to say, but burdensome for Apple to replace all of the devices that suffer water damage every year. If a patent like this helps Apple avoid some of those costs, maybe that's better for both the company and its customers.

[Via Engadget]



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Apple has submitted a patent that describes a better method of detecting water in an electronic device. In other words, Apple has devised...
 

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macfreakbudda

You answered your own argument, Apple should just buy one of these liquid coating companies and have yet one more killer feature that nobody else will do. Those companies aren't valued at more than a couple of million right now, that wouldn't even put a dent in the interest that Apple is earning right now. As for the other argument, I agree that water damage is lied about quite frequently, but unless Apple is going to spend mega bucks to retrofit people's devices when (or if, and if they opt in/authorize) they bring it in to an Apple Store then that point is completely moot.

February 21 2012 at 2:35 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jangothor

If Apple spent as much time and money on waterproofing the device as it does trying to catch people lying...

February 21 2012 at 2:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
puhsitch

I think they are looking at integrating methods of waterproofing, aren't they?
e.g., http://www.tuaw.com/2012/01/16/hzos-waterblock-technology-could-make-it-to-apple-products/

February 21 2012 at 1:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
GWB3

Mike, it's not an either/or proposition. Apple can research methods of better protecting devices from water at the same time they are improving methods of detecting water damage.

February 21 2012 at 12:49 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
hmcnally

> I question this research

You wouldn't if you'd ever worked behind a Genius Bar. Liquid damage is the most lied about, most common user-inflicted damage in the industry--with laptops, phones, iPods, and even desktops--and people become indignant when they're told it's not covered under warranty. Sorry to say, but that indignation is mitigated by liquid sensors in much the same way as traffic camera mitigate people arguing that they went through red lights.

The "spend that time making iPhones just more resistant to liquids" remark makes as much sense as "Toyota should make automobiles that drive underwater." It's possible, but not practical. Then again, maybe Apple will buy out liquipel.com and actually make a waterproof phone.

February 21 2012 at 11:08 AM Report abuse +3 rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to hmcnally's comment
steve

A phone that has been dropped in a pool or been through the washer is one thing. However, at least the earlier water sensors Apple used (don't know about the current ones) were so sensitive that high humidity set them off. I know this because Apple reported the sensors tripped on my son's phone even though he said the phone had never gotten wet, so I had them look at the sensors in _my_ phone, which I _knew_ had never gotten wet (just exposed to the high humidity that is endemic in south Florida) and they indicated that mine were tripped also.

An iPhone is, at the most basic, a mobile phone - it is going to be where the people who use it are, and it needs to be able to survive those conditions. If it can't be used in humid conditions, or survive in a pocket when someone runs through a rain shower from their house to their car, or live through being carried into a bathroom, then there is a problem. The phones _do_ need to be made more resistant to that level of "water". Or, since as far as I know none of this actually damaged the phones, maybe they just need to make their water sensors less sensitive (so they will only trip if the phone had actually been immersed). Ideally, they would do both...

February 21 2012 at 2:59 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
DanRanda

That's EXACTLY what Apple should be doing.... using a liquipel type application to make their phones water proof. Actually, maybe they shouldn't buy them out because there is a competitor to liquipel and so buying out liquipel technology would not guarantee that Apple is the only phone manufacturer to offer such a technology, therefore buying them out might be too costly for what is almost no competitive advantage, from a features standpoint. But it could yield less costly implementation of the technology and therefore make their offering more competitive than the competitors.

Either way you cut it, I agree that Apple should be investing and working diligently in the field of waterproofing their electronics. That alone would prove their products to be worth what some are claiming to be higher prices than similar products.

February 21 2012 at 3:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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