AppleInsider Staff
It could soon be more difficult to fool Genius Bar employees into servicing an iPhone or iPad under warranty after it has been carelessly dropped by the user, even without physical damage, as Apple has won a patent for embedding sensors into devices' cover glass to record strain on the part from twists and drops.
The patent, simply entitled "Embedded Data Acquisition," describes a method in which a number of sensors could be embedded directly into the glass to detect and record forces that act upon the glass. This is preferable to the current method of attaching external sensors to the glass, Apple argues, because those sensors tend to become detached when the glass impacts a hard surface.
Apple primarily imagines using this new instrumentation for manufacturing and product development purposes, gathering more detailed data from drop and impact tests. Information from embedded piezoelectric sensors would be recorded to a device's internal memory and made accessible for engineers to more fully understand the stresses that lead glass to crack.
Aside from designing more resilient glass, Apple does discuss a secondary use for this data: determining how devices brought in for service have been treated by their owners.
Apple has developed a method of embedding a grid of piezoelectric sensors into a device's cover glass."(The data) may be used to evaluate a user's treatment of the device," the patent reads. "In particular, if a damaged device is brought in for service, the data from the sensor may be read and evaluated to see what caused the damage. Furthermore, the data may indicate a history (or no history) of rough treatment of the device."
Apple would then use that data, presumably in conjunction with other criteria, in determining whether it should service that device under warranty.
Dhaval Shah, Stephen B. Lynch, and Andrzej Baranski are credited with the invention of Apple's U.S. Patent No. 8,939,037.
Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
22 Comments
But with apple care+, drops and liquids are covered... Nothing else, unless it is a freak accident, and can prove it as such. Dropping it in a lake/ocean may be frowned upon. I had to return my ipad because the volume down button was stuck... and i did get the feeling they DID NOT trust me!... How can someone make the volume down button get stuck!?. I got the same air pad model, so much for getting the newest model replacing the old (it was a 128Gb cell iPad Air)...
This is a good idea.
It will provide useful anonymous usage data for engineering analysis, which would be unavailable by any other means.
For its secondary use in helping to determine warranty coverage eligibility, the system could determine more objectively whether the abuse was accidental or chronic.
I think Apple tries to be flexible in this and balances the value of good customer relations with "evidence." Case in point: I dropped my iPhone 6+ accidentally on asphalt, which put a crack in the lower right corner of the front glass. At the genius bar, they apparently recognized the lack of severity of the damage and replaced the glass for free, and didn't charge the normal "deductible." I thought that was quite decent of them.
[quote name="haar" url="/t/184523/apple-develops-sensor-laden-glass-to-monitor-analyze-device-treatment#post_2666964"]But with apple care+, drops and liquids are covered... Nothing else, unless it is a freak accident, and can prove it as such.[/quote] What do you mean by "nothing else"? Unless you walk into the store and beat it with a hammer right in front of them they'll replace a broken iDevice under AC+.
But with apple care+, drops and liquids are covered... Nothing else, unless it is a freak accident, and can prove it as such.
Dropping it in a lake/ocean may be frowned upon.
I had to return my ipad because the volume down button was stuck... and i did get the feeling they DID NOT trust me!... How can someone make the volume down button get stuck!?.
I got the same air pad model, so much for getting the newest model replacing the old (it was a 128Gb cell iPad Air)...
They'd only give you the newer model if they didn't have the old one. Since the Air is still being produced, and it wasn't that long ago the 128GB models were discontinued, they still have stock.
[quote name="SolipsismY" url="/t/184523/apple-develops-sensor-laden-glass-to-monitor-analyze-device-treatment#post_2666972"] What do you mean by "nothing else"? Unless you walk into the store and beat it with a hammer right in front of them they'll replace a broken iDevice under AC+.[/quote] That is what i figured, after reading the fine print on the applecare+...