Apple looks to tweak its user interfaces for camera effects

Apple has filed for a patent (number 20220124241) for a “user interface for camera effects.” It involves the iPhone and iPad.

About the patent filing

In the patent filing, Apple notes that the use of electronic devices for recording videos and taking pictures has increased significantly in recent years. Devices such as the iPhone and iPad include a viewfinder that the user can use for previewing before taking a picture or recording a video. 

However, Apple says that some techniques for managing camera effects using electronic devices are “generally cumbersome and inefficient.”

How so? The tech giant says that “modifying the visual effects in viewfinders such that captured images and recorded videos exhibit the visual effects often requires extensive user input and is imprecise.”

What’s more, “existing techniques require more time than necessary, wasting user time and device energy.” Apple wants to overcome such limitations with the iPhone and iPad.

Summary of the patent filing

Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent filing: “The present disclosure generally relates to user interfaces. In some examples, the electronic device transitions between user interfaces for capturing photos based on data received from a first camera and a second camera. In some examples, the electronic device provides enhanced zooming capabilities that result in visual pleasing results for a displayed digital viewfinder and for captured videos. 

“In some examples, the electronic device provides user interfaces for transitioning a digital viewfinder between a first camera with an applied digital zoom to a second camera with no digital zoom. In some examples, the electronic device prepares to capture media at various magnification levels. In some examples, the electronic device enhanced capabilities for navigating through a plurality of values.”