Those who own Apple Watch know how Watch Faces can be customised and it is commonly seen that wearers like to match the collar of the watch face with their outfit or accessories. Toon, your Apple Watch would be able to automatically sync the color of your watch face with your outfit.
Apple has been granted a new patent that could make this possible in future Apple Watch models. The patent titled “Electronic Devices With Color Sampling Sensors” has been granted by U.S.P.T.O. to Apple today.
Currently, Apple allows customisation in Watch Faces but there are certain limitations. The biggest grip of Apple Watch users is that the company does not allow third-party watch faces and not every element of watch faces are customisable.
Light Sensor behind the display
Here’s what the patent says about how it will detect the color of your outfit and match the watch face with it:
“An electronic device such as a watch may include a display and a light sensor located behind the display. The light sensor may be used to measure the color of external objects.
During color sampling operations, the display may emit light toward the external object in front of the display while the light sensor gathers color measurements.
The display may emit light of different colors and the light sensor may detect an amount of reflected light for each color, which in turn may be used to determine the color of the external object. The control circuitry may use a watch-band-specific algorithm to determine the color of watch bands and may use a clothing-specific algorithm to determine the color of clothing.
The control circuitry may display the color on the display so that the face of the watch matches the user’s clothing or matches the user’s watch band.”
Without delving too much into technical jargon, it is evident that Apple will use a light sensor to detect the colors of your outfit or watch band. Then, an algorithm will offer options to the wearer to turn the watch face into that particular color.
Another noticeable thing is that Apple will put the color detection sensor behind the display. This means you would have to point your Apple Watch towards your watch band or clothes to detect their color.
Like other patents, this also comes with a disclaimer that while Apple has got its hands on the technology, it is not sure whether the company will bring the feature to its future products. We will have to wait until it Apple decides to bring this feature to reality.