Apple's Smart HomeKit platform already includes some features of whether or not the user is in the home, but can only use geolocation awareness in a relatively simple way. The system can tell if the user's home or departure, which could allow for automatic heating or lighting changes, but does not work from room to room.

If it were possible to track the user's location up to that accuracy, it might also be feasible to keep tabs on where objects connected to HomeKit are located and, in turn, allow multiple portable items to change the location for different tasks. HomeKit camera.

In the patent application released Thursday by the US Patent and Trademark Office, entitled "Tracking and authenticating objects using modular wall units", Apple proposes to take advantage of the numerous sockets, sockets and wall switches that are installed in homes and offices around the world. to help detect nearby devices.

An example of an electrical outlet that could be used by Apple for patent application

The idea is that the devices can communicate with radios and other sensors in the sockets, which in turn communicate the details of a central system. By monitoring messages in a variety of different ways, its position could be accurately determined.

Suggestions include measuring threshold changes for communications on the device and several outlets nearby to triangulate their location, monitor flight time for sent or received messaging, and even the signal arrival angle.

This detection is not limited to devices alone, as the application proposes signals that could be used to detect other nearby elements based on the amount of distortion or frequency content of the data distortion. This can even be for non-living items, such as furniture or a wall, which can affect communications for multiple devices simultaneously.

An illustration that gives a general idea of ​​the interiors of each module

As for how the units are built, Apple suggests that they might look like ordinary sockets and switches, with the communication hardware hidden behind the front plate. While normal radio communications can also be used, Apple is proposing to use a millimeter wave sensor system to scan detected objects. Using Ultra-Wideband is also a possibility, along with radar and ultrasound to determine distances and location, along with magnetometers, accelerometers and more antennas to find the position of the unit in space.

By determining the location of a unit and in accordance with other units and detecting the devices, the system has the potential to draw up a building plan in 3D space. The system could even automatically authenticate and configure nearby devices, approving or denying network or power connections depending on the hardware.

This is not the first time Apple has proposed the use of outlets for such a concept. A September 2019 patent application for a "modular wall unit system" used a similar combination of sockets and communication modules to locate the position of the user's communication device and to issue HomeKit commands to nearby devices, though In that version, Apple suggests using Ultra Broadband, which it started to use in the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro family.

For iPhones, the use of the U1 Ultra Wideband chip is used to identify nearby AirDrop recipients, with its capabilities for estimating direction and potential range more accurately than other wireless technologies, such as Bluetooth.

Apple files numerous patent applications every week, but while demonstrating areas of interest to the iPhone manufacturer, there is no guarantee that future products and services will use the concepts at all.

Patent filing presents its inventors, such as Travis J. McQueen, Clark Della Silva, Scott G. Johnston, Wade R. Barnett, Christopher Merrill and Jay C. Couch.