“Shoulder surfing” means when someone with bad intentions looks at your phone from the side, “unnoticed” while you are entering sensitive information such as PIN or password. This is a big problem and Apple wants to reduce the risk of this happening on iPhones.
According to AppleInsider, Apple recently applied for two new patents to deal with this problem. The first is on a privacy film that contains a “light-blocking layer” that will be one of the bottom layers on the phone screen, ensuring that you can only see the light coming from the screen when you look directly at the screen.
The second is “displays with adjustable viewing angles.” This suggests that users will be able to instantly change the viewing angle of the screen when necessary. In other words, you’ll be able to turn on private viewing mode when you don’t want others to look at what you’re doing.
These patents are not specifically directed at iPhones, and the technology outlined here can be applied to everything from iPads to iMacs. However, these applications only serve to show what kind of technologies companies are researching, and there is no guarantee that the technology in question will be included in any consumer products.
Obviously, a wide field of view is advantageous for users because you do not have to look directly at the screen to see what is on it. This can be annoying, especially on a large monitor that you’re moving around in front of.
But the wider the field of view on a screen, the less private your on-screen activities are. “In some situations, such as when a user of a laptop or other device with a screen uses the device in a public place, a wide viewing angle is undesirable because it compromises privacy,” Apple says in one of its patents.
We’ll have to wait and see if Apple can develop this display technology to work without adding too much to the device manufacturing cost. The company currently relies on third-party manufacturers such as Samsung and LG for its device displays, so they will need to get involved at some stage.
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