Your Apple Watch Face Could Soon Change Color Like A Chameleon: What Cupertino's New Design Patent Reveals

Apple Inc. AAPL is known for its inclination towards innovation while restricting user and third-party customizations. This seems to be gradually changing in the future, at least for the Apple Watch, if the latest patent filing is to be believed.

What Happened: Apple has filed a patent for its wearable that aims to let your Apple Watch’s face adapt to the color of external objects like clothing, watch bands, and perhaps even your car. Apple Insider first spotted the patent.

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As described in a patent named “Electronic Devices With Color Sampling Sensors,” Apple has proposed a mechanism where the Watch’s face color can be changed to match any external object. Here’s how it could work:

1. Position an object in front of the Watch.
2. The device’s sensor identifies the color of the object.
3. The Watch changes the display background to match the detected color.

Until Apple Watch Series 8 and Watch Ultra, users can modify certain color elements on their Apple Watch; this technology would push the boundaries by allowing the entire face to match any object’s palette. However, users would still be working within a predetermined color set.

The patent document also explains the technicalities of this feature. The Watch might emit red, green, and blue light sequences, which the sensor would then use to detect the reflected light from the external object to determine its color.

Interestingly, Apple has given different treatment algorithms for watch bands and other items. For bands, the colors might be picked from a preset list, while for clothing, it could recognize any color within a defined gamut.

Why Is It Important: For nearly a decade, Apple enthusiasts and third-party developers have asked for the ability to customize Apple Watch faces. But Apple did not listen to the demands and kept them away from the freedom to design their watch faces from scratch. With this patent, Apple could take baby steps toward improving design customization in a unique direction.

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