Apple wants you to be able to calibrate your TV’s display via your iPhone or iPad

For years there were rumors that Apple would release its own HDTV. That never happened, but the tech giant has been granted a patent (number 11575884 B1) for a “display calibration system” with the goal of allowing you to calibrate your HDTV by using an iPhone or iPad.

About the patent

In the patent Apple says that some televisions are provide with content from external sources such as media player boxes. TVs are often used with factory settings, which can lead to undesired color casts and other undesired characteristics for displayed content. 

However, Apple notes that if care isn’t taken, content from an external source will be adversely affected by a television’s settings. The tech giant wants you to be able to fix such issues by calibrating or re-calibrating your TV display via your iPhone or iPad.

Summary of the patent

Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “A system may include multiple electronic devices. A first device such as a source electronic device may supply visual content for displaying by a display in a second electronic device such as a display electronic device. The display electronic device may be a television or other device with a display. Calibration operations may be performed by taking light measurements on light produced by the display when test content is provided from the first device to the second device. 

“A third electronic device in the system such as a portable electronic device with an ambient light sensor may make measurement on the light from the display while the test content is being displayed. The test content may contain a test image target with time-varying color and time-varying intensity, allowing calibration information such as gamma curves to be obtained on the display.”